Never Far
by SummerGirl0009
Summary: T.K. and Kari had just decided to finally become something more than friends, but can their relationship survive when life throws a few curve balls at them?
1. Shattered

Never Far 

**Chapter 1- Shattered**

"Time to switch!" Yolei's voice cried out, quickly bringing Kari out of her drowsy state. Reluctantly, Kari rolled over onto her back so that her front side would now be exposed to the sun's unusually hot rays. However, it wasn't as if any of the digi-destineds were complaining, rather, they chose to celebrate the end of a great summer vacation, and the scorching heat wave, with a trip to the beach.

The boys, as in Tai, Matt, T.K., Davis, Ken, Izzy, Cody, and Joe were occupied in an intense game of volleyball, while Sora, Yolei, and Kari pretended to be cheering them on, though actually just falling asleep in their lounge chairs. To keep herself from drifting back to sleep, Kari watched the game. It was the older kids versus the younger kids; Tai, Matt, Izzy, and Joe against T.K., Davis, Ken, and Cody, and it was not going well. The younger digi-destineds were kicking the other team's butt. Tai looked like a volcano ready to erupt.

"I'm sorry guys, but I have to get going. My first class is on Monday and I still have some preparing to do before then," Joe, of course, said.

The others merely rolled their eyes at Joe's insane study habits, since they had long since given up debating the matter with him. "Oh well," Davis laughed, "I think you guys were only getting worse anyway." He high-fived T.K., Cody, and Ken, who laughed as well.

Tai's face was as red as a tomato as he began what eventually became a very heated shouting match with Davis. While Matt and Ken tried to interfere and calm everything down, T.K. walked over to where the girls were lounging.

As he walked towards her, Kari didn't miss the chance to check out his half naked body from behind her pink sunglasses. Spending his summer playing basketball had given him a nice tan that matched his gorgeous golden hair, sexy blue eyes, and currently sweaty and heavily muscled upper body. She was expecting him to come invite one of them to take Joe's place so they could keep playing, but Kari noticed that the closer he got, the faster he was moving. Kari threw off her sunglasses and leapt out of her lounge chair, catching the playful glint in his baby blue eyes as he smiled mischievously at her.

"T.K. don't!" she cried as she tried to run away, but it was no use, because he easily outmatched her. Catching up to her, he effortlessly lifted her body into his arms and made a dash for the shore. She struggled against him for a second before giving in, enjoying this type of contact with him.

He didn't slow down when they reached the water, rushing deeper until it was well over waist deep. The water was like ice as it touched their heated skin, causing Kari to wrap her arms around his neck, clinging to him for both warmth and stability. She pulled herself away from him as her body adjusted to the temperature. Discreetly, she wound back her arm and playfully splashed water in his direction. Smiling mischievously once again, he splashed her back, and before he could retaliate, he grabbed her. He wrapped his arms around her middle and pulled her underwater with him.

The instant that they were beneath the surface and hidden from view, their lips met in a deep, passionate kiss. Her hands were raking through his hair, and his tongue explored her mouth. Kari had to admit that she was a little surprised by this sudden action, but she was in no way unresponsive. T.K. had been her best friend since the first time that they had saved the digital world eight years ago, and they had always been attracted to each other in more ways than friendship. Yet, it was only a few weeks ago that they had started delighting in these satisfying secrets kisses.

They both knew that eventually they would have to tell their friends about their relationship, though they were still trying to figure out exactly what was going on themselves.

They emerged from the water, gasping for air, bodies still entwined. Immediately, though, they checked to see if their friends had noticed anything, and the spectacle that they witnessed caused them both to erupt into fits of laughter. Sora and Yolei had managed to escape Kari's fate by clinging to their lounge chairs for dear life. So, instead, Tai, Matt, and Davis were attempting to drag them and the chairs into the water while Matt, Izzy, and Cody were on the sand laughing.

Since they appeared to be thoroughly distracted, T.K. turned to face the gorgeous girl beside him, "Kari," he hesitated, "would you want to go out with me tomorrow?"

"Do you mean, like on a date?" she asked cautiously, and he nodded in confirmation. "Would it be as friends, or as boyfriend/girlfriend?"

He smiled and said, "I want to be your boyfriend," and he hugged her once again.

"So…" Kari replied, "pick me up at seven?"

"Does this mean you want to be my girlfriend?" he asked, and she nodded in response.

He leaned in to kiss her once again, when the rest of the group hit the water, initiating huge amounts of splashing, kicking, and laughing. Instead of making out, they swam towards their friends, though they did so sticking close together so that they did not lose contact.

Later on, when Matt drove Tai and Kari home, T.K. walked her to the entrance of her apartment building. He waited until Tai had gone inside before giving her a quick kiss and telling her that he would see her tomorrow.

Kari stepped inside, her stomach fluttering like it only did when she was around T.K. Tai was waiting for her by the elevator after having witnessed everything between the two of them. Though he did not appear as if he approved of the new situation, he didn't speak a word to her on the way up. They walked towards their apartment door and Kari broke the silence. She shoved him gently and laughed at his surprise.

"Come on Tai," she said, "Your baby sister's all grown up now and she can take care of herself."

He rolled his eyes and opened the door. "I just can't believe that you're cheating on Davis."

Kari instantly fumed. "Tai!" she squealed. "I can't believe you just said that! I'm not going out with Davis! I never have and I never will!"

She moved to tackle her brother but saw the amusement in his face and realized that he had just mentioned Davis to set her off. She changed her mind and slapped him playfully. He raised his arms to defend himself when, suddenly, he froze, his liveliness gone in a split second to make room for concern and anxiety.

Kari stepped into the living room to see her mother sitting on the couch crying with a box of tissues on her lap.

"Mom what's wrong?" Tai asked, giving her a hug from behind.

Kari couldn't help it, but she panicked. The T.V. was off, so her mother probably wasn't crying over some dumb soap opera or those hallmark commercials.

"Your father and I…" Mrs. Kamiya began, before bursting into another round of sobbing and clutching of her tissues.

The clock on the wall read six thirty-two. Mr. Kamiya gets off of work at five o'clock, even if he had to run an errand after work, he should be home by now. At six thirty on a normal day they would be sitting down to dinner as a family. Where was her father? Why wasn't he here for her mother?

"Mom," Kari said slowly, trying not to upset the woman even more, "where is dad?"

There was a huge honking sound as their mother blew her nose, then she took a deep breath and said shakily, "Your father is gone. We have decided to get a divorce. He left this afternoon with his twenty-two-year-old girlfriend for Kyoto."

And just like that, the wonderful, picture perfect life that Kari had been taking for granted cracked like a broken mirror. Her father was gone. Divorce. Kyoto. Kari collapsed on the couch beside what was left of her family, trying desperately to process this overload of new information.

Her mother put an arm around her. "Kari, sweetie," she said gently, "I need you to get your things together. We're leaving Monday morning to go stay with Grandma Kate."

Grandma Kate? Kari couldn't take any more surprised. She had never met her Grandma Kate. Realization flooded into her and shattered the rest of Kari's life. She had never met her maternal grandmother before because the woman lived in San Francisco, California. In America!


	2. Closure

Never Far 

**Chapter 2- Closure**

"What?" was the only word Kari could manage.

"I know it's sudden," Mrs. Kamiya said, "I hate springing this on you two like this. I wanted to wait and break it to you gently, I guess I actually thought we could work this out…" she broke off into more sobbing. "I'm sorry Tai," she continued, "since we already paid this years tuition for you at the university, I figured that you could stay with one of your friends until you can arrange for a dormitory. Of course…I'm sure your father wouldn't mind if you stayed here. I hate to do this to you, especially when you start classes on Monday…"

"What about me?" Kari interrupted, "I start classes on Monday too! It's my junior year of high school, and all of my friends are here! You can't make me move to America!"

Before Mrs. Kamiya could respond, Kari stormed over to her room and slammed the door.

Her mother gave her some time to calm down before knocking softly. Kari called quietly that she could come in, so she pushed the door open slowly. Her daughter sat curled up on her bed, staring off into space through bloodshot eyes.

"Oh Kari," she whispered, "I'm so sorry." She sat down on the bed and pulled her daughter close. "I know I shouldn't ask so much from you. I'm just having a hard time dealing with all of this…and now that your father's in Kyoto, we can't even discuss this like civilized people!"

Kari choked back her tears as she tightened her grip on her mother, watching her alternate between depression and anger. "I'm sorry too, mom," she whispered, "I was being selfish earlier. I want to help you get through this."

"I know, sweetie," she replied, cupping Kari's chin in her hand, but the only we'll all make it through is if we stick together. That's why I need you with me, and Grandma Kate."

Kari woke up the next morning, Sunday morning, thinking, this is the last day of summer vacation. She sat up and the sight of all of her things strewn across her room brought back memories of the night before. She then had to restate herself, thinking, this is the last day of my life in Japan.

These unpleasant thoughts seemed to weigh her down and she spent the day slowly packing all of her things into brown, cardboard boxes and reflecting on all of her favorite memories from the last sixteen years of her life.

She had just stepped out of the shower around four o'clock, when T.K. called to make sure their plans were still on for that night. She must have sounded as down as she felt because he could tell before she even said anything.

"What's wrong Kari? Have you changed your mind about going out with me?" he asked, very concerned.

"No, T.K., it's not that," she said, deciding that she didn't want to tell him about her eight o'clock a.m. departure over the phone. "Look, I don't know what you had planned for tonight…but do you think we could just hang out instead?"

"Sure, whatever you want to do is fine with me," is what he said, though Kari could tell that he was a little hurt.

"Okay, how about you meet me in the park in an hour? I need to talk to you about something."

"Yeah, that's fine," he said, even more concerned than before, "but what do you want to talk to me about?"

"Umm…" she hesitated, "I want to tell you in person." She laughed nervously, trying to make the situation a little more comfortable. "So I'll see you then?"

"Alright. See you in an hour."

"Bye." He hung up the phone almost as soon as the word was out of her mouth. She couldn't blame him for being upset, grief was practically radiating off of her. She would have reacted the same way if their roles had been reversed.

Suddenly she felt like crying, the way that she cancelled their date, he probably thought that she wanted to break off their friendship, or something along that line. She couldn't even imagine his reaction to what she was going to tell him.

Pulling herself together, she managed to find her favorite pink tank top and matching pleated, short, white skirt from the stacks of boxed clothing. She spent the next half an hour primping herself with her beauty products that she had yet to pack. At first, she tried to pretend that she was just getting ready for her first date with T.K., and that from now on they would officially be a couple, and everything would be as it should be.

Four thirty came and Kari abandoned her fantasy, preparing herself to share the heartbreaking news with the best friend she had ever had. She left her apartment then, and headed to the park, even though she was incredibly early.

The park was only a few blocks away from Kari's apartment building, so it did not take her long to get there. It occurred to her, as she approached the children's playground, that she had only told T.K. to meet her at the park, and that it was a very large park. Desolately, she worked her way past the relatively new jungle gyms and plastic mazes to the older playground, where she had spent much time as a child. The only structures there were a pair of squeaky swings, a rusty slide, and a dilapidated set of monkey bars.

She smiled to herself as she drew nearer to the familiar place, recognizing the blonde-haired boy sitting thoughtfully in one of the swings, shuffling his feet in the woodchips. She stopped a few feet in front of where he was, before he noticed her presence, just taking in the sight of him. He looked gorgeous in a pair of blue jeans and a light green button up shirt.

It only took a second for him to sense her eyes on him and as stood up as he greeted her. He walked towards her and she felt like crying for the countless time that day. Taking her in his arms, he leaned in to kiss her.

"You look beautiful," he whispered, and right as he closed the distance between their faces, she turned her head and he ended up kissing her cheek.

Her eyes filled up with tears at the surprise and hurt in his eyes as he stepped back from her. "What is it? Did I do something wrong?" he asked.

Everything that she had planned on telling him left her mind, and the only thing she could manage to whisper was, "I'm leaving."

"What do you mean? Where are you going?"

She looked him in the eyes, silently begging him to be patient with her. "My parents are getting a divorce."

His eyes widened with both disbelief and understanding, after all, his parents had gone through almost the same thing.

"My mother and I are moving to America to live with my grandmother," she continued.

"But you can't leave now," he stated the obvious, moving over to sit back down on the swing. "You're in school here, you grew up here, this is where your friends are, where your brother is…" She had moved to sit down on the other swing, but he grabbed her waist and pulled her down onto his lap. "…where I am," he finished.

She placed her arms around his neck, not bothering to hold back her tears any longer. "I know," she said, as he kissed her neck softly, "but my mom needs me right now, you, of all people, should understand that."

"I do," he replied, "but I still don't want you to go."

This time when he tried to kiss her, she didn't turn away, but responded with as much passion as he was displaying. They were interrupted, however, when they heard a snapping sound above them, and the chains of the swing broke, dropping them on the ground.

T.K. hit the sand hard on his backside, Kari sprawled on top of him. They both laughed, though they didn't make any attempt to get back up. Kari rolled off him, and they moved over so that they could sit in the sand and lean against one of the swing set's support poles.

"It's not like we'll lose contact or anything. I mean, we can still instant message each other, or send e-mails, and, if all else fails, there' s still old-fashioned 'snail mail,'" Kari said after a while.

"Yeah," he replied, "and America's not that bad. Maybe you'll see Mimi, or Willis."

She laughed, "Yeah, except that New York and San Francisco are on opposite sides of the North American continent."

"Oh, never mind then."

A comfortable silence fell over them, and she leaned her head on his shoulder, treasuring every last second that she had with him. Some time later, T.K. broke it by asking, "So, if you and your mom are going to San Francisco, and Tai's in college, what's going on with your dad?"

He knew that something had happened between Kari and her father from the fact that she hadn't mentioned him. She confirmed this theory when she tensed beside him. He though that she wasn't going to answer him when she said, "I don't know. I haven't seen my dad since Friday. He's in Kyoto with his girlfriend."

T.K. sensed where this conversation was going, and stood up, pulling Kari with him. "We'll have plenty of time to talk about this in our e-mails after you leave. Right now, I just want to be with you. If this is our last day together, then let's have some fun."

Kari brushed the sand off her skirt, and took his hand, ready to follow him anywhere.

Anywhere turned out to be a fully guided tour around their city, visiting all of the places that reminded them of things from the past, or of people that they had known. When it started to get dark, they went back to his apartment, where he helped her write letters to Yolei, Davis, and everyone else, saying goodbye, since she didn't have enough time or energy to visit them all and explain everything. After that, they curled up on his couch and watched random television shows until Kari's mom called and demanded that she come home.

"What time does your flight leave tomorrow?" he asked, as he walked her home.

"Eight o'clock," she stated, remembering that school started at seven thirty. They reached her apartment building, and this time he accompanied her all the way to her doorstep. They were the only ones around, so Kari threw her arms around him and kissed him deeply on the mouth. He returned her kiss, pushing her back against the wall, his hands cupping the sides of her face.

"So, is this goodbye, then?" she asked when they finally broke apart.

"Only for a little while," was his response. "It's not like you'll ever really be that far away."


	3. Separation

Never Far 

**Chapter 3- Separation**

Kari sat emotionless in the uncomfortable, black, leather chairs of the airport terminal. Music blared through the headphones around her neck, yet she wasn't really listening. She was staring absentmindedly out the window as the sun rose over the runways. Besider her, Mrs. Kamiya's thoughts were also somewhere else, as she stared blankly ahead and occasionally took a sip from her cup of coffee.

There was an announcement on the loud speaker that passengers on the eight o'clock flight to San Francisco could begin boarding. When they announced it a second time, Kari sighed, putting aside all of her unhappiness, knowing that as of now, she would have to begin looking after her lost mother.

"Mom," Kari said softly, but there was no response. Her mother only sipped her hot drink, not showing any sign that she had heard Kari's voice.

"Mom!" Kari repeated, gripping her arm to get her attention.

It worked. "Hmm?" Mrs. Kamiya responded with, turning her head to give her daughter a questioning look.

Kari pointed to where a stream of people were lined up to board the plane. They stood up and took their place in line, when Kari suddenly realized that she couldn't remember if she had placed her boarding pass in her purse or the backpack she was taking as her carry-on luggage.

She was frantically digging through tubes of lip gloss and packs of chewing gum to find it, when her mother said, almost dreamily, "What is T.K. doing here? He should be in school."

Kari froze, she looked up and met his clear, sky blue eyes. He was running toward her, his eyes locked on hers as he dodged through the throng of people to get to her. She dropped her purse, forgetting momentarily about boarding passes and divorces, throwing herself into his open arms.

Their lips met and everyone around them "oohed" and "awed."

When her feet were firmly back on the ground, she pulled away. "You know, skipping the first day of school isn't exactly the best way to make a good impression."

"I know this sounds crazy," he murmured, pulling her back against him, "but I came here to beg you to not get on the plane."

"That is crazy. You know I have to go. Besides, I thought we decided last night that we'd still be best friends."

"But that's just it," he said. "I did some thinking last night and come to term with a few things. And…and…" he stumbled, "there are things I need to say to you in person, things that are too important to say with words through an e-mail."

"What?"

A voice came over the loud speaker announcing, "Last call for passengers on the eight o'clock flight to San Francisco. Last call."

"T.K. I have to go," she turned to see that her mother was handing the flight attendant their boarding passes. She turned and gave Kari a look that clearly said something alone the lines of, 'You better wrap this up.'

There was now no one left to board the plane. Kari glanced back at T.K., trying to tell him that they could finish their conversation later.

"Kari, I love you," he blurted out, surprising both of them.

The flight attendant was closing the door to the gates.

Kari was too stunned to say anything. "I really have to go." She pulled away from him, heading towards the gate where her mother was waiting for her. When she was almost out of his sight, she turned around and waved.

"I'll see you later," she mouthed, and he nodded, waving back. With that, Kari turned back to her mother, helping her keep her footing on the inclined walkway, while telling herself that that couldn't be the last time that she'd ever see him.

Kari spent many hours sleeping, staring out the window at the miles and miles white clouds, and contemplating T.K.'s last words to her. He loved her? She couldn't believe that when he'd finally said it to her, she'd been too shocked to say anything back.

Of course, if she had been thinking straight, she would have said 'I love you' back. But he didn't know that. She'd loved him for years, and he hadn't even figured out that she wanted to be more than his friend until this summer.

Her mother tried to get her interested in the movie she was watching, but Kari didn't understand how she could just watch a movie while the biggest changes in her life were taking place.

The only thing that pulled Kari out of her misery was the captain's voice announcing that they were about to begin their descent into San Francisco, and all that did was infuse a small bit of excitement in her gut.

She desperately searched the ground below her to try and get a glimpse of San Francisco, but it was pretty dark out, and the only thing Kari could see were clusters of lights, so she gave up her investigation.

They finally managed to get off of the plane and into the building, and Kari realized that though their flight had taken more than a few hours, they had actually gone back in time. In California, it was either very late Sunday night, or very early Monday morning, depending on which way you looked at it. Though back in Japan, T.K. was probably eating dinner, that is, if he didn't have too many detentions today.

Once they were past the security gates, Kari received her first glimpse of her grandmother. She was a short woman, plump, but not excessively so, with long gray hair and hard, blue eyes. Much of her appearance could have lead Kari to believe many things about her, but Kari instinctively knew that to do that would be wrong. One of the only things Kari learned from this glimpse was that her grandmother was a mystery.

As soon as Kari's mother spotted Grandma Kate, she ran to her, with a lot of kissing, and hugging, and emotion, which from Kari's point of view, seemed to be one-sided. Grandma Kate returned the display of affection, though the way she hugged her mother seemed almost cold.

After Kari's mother disentangled herself from Grandma Kate, the older woman gave Kari a long look. Kari returned the stare, refusing to be the first to look away, and her grandmother nodded, as if in approval. Then, she surprised Kari with a half smile and gestured for them to follow her down to the baggage claim.

Not too much time had passed before Kari was sitting in the backseat of her grandmother's red Ford Focus with their suitcases. They had packed as much clothes and necessities as they could into three heavy-duty pieces of luggage until Tai could send them the rest of their stuff later in the week.

It was almost two in the morning, and though Kari really hadn't been awake for a normal day, she felt extremely tired. She hadn't forgotten her excitement of seeing San Francisco, yet all she really wanted to do was curl up and take a nap. In fact, that's exactly what she did.

Some time later, she awoke in a very uncomfortable position on top of her suitcase. She had only come out of her sleepy state when her grandmother pulled into a driveway and turned off the car's engine. But, of course, after Kari's nap, she was only more exhausted.

Half asleep, Kari climbed out of the backseat, dragging her suitcase, backpack, and purse with her. She looked up to a three story, pale blue row house with white trim.

Kari remembered later, that at the time she had thought it was the most beautiful house she'd ever seen.

She followed her mother and grandmother up the enormous stair well to the front porch, and through the doorway, carrying two of the three suitcases, as well as her backpack and purse. Even though it was late, Grandma Kate gave her daughter and granddaughter and full tour of her home.

The first floor, was actually the second floor of the house, being that the first floor was the ground floor, and contained only a garage used for storage and a single bathroom. The second, and main floor, included a living room, dining room, fancy bathroom, and the kitchen. To the right of the front door there was a winding stair case which led to the third floor, where Kari found a bedroom, a bathroom, a study, and the master bedroom and bathroom.

Kari set her mother's luggage down in the bedroom, wondering where she was going to stay.

It was at that exact moment that her grandmother entered the room behind her and said, "If you like, you can stay on the futon in the study. The futon's in the attic, I didn't bring it down because I thought you might be more comfortable up there. It's pretty clean, and private, I know all about how teenagers like there privacy. And don't worry, there's not much junk up there, I keep all my junk in the garage."

Kari nodded, and climbed yet another set of stairs up to the attic. Cautiously, she opened the door, not really knowing what to expect. Instead, she found her grandmother's "futon" which turned out to be a pile of blankets on top of a fluffy mattress on the floor. But the floor was clean, and it was comfortable, so Kari laid down, and was instantly asleep.


	4. Crushed

Never Far 

**Chapter 4- Crushed**

Kari was awoken in the morning by the sound of the garbage truck outside and the delicious aroma of bacon frying. Hungrily, she crawled out from under the very comfortable heap of blankets and made her way down the many flights of stairs to the kitchen.

Grandma Kate was fully dressed in loose jeans and a light blue T-shirt as stood in front of the stove, diligently cooking their breakfast. Kari sat down on a cushioned barstool beside the counter, wiping the sleep from her eyes.

"Would you like something to drink?" her grandmother asked her, and she sort of grunted a 'yes.'

"I didn't know what you liked so I bought milk, orange juice, apple juice, some sort of mango-pineapple combination, and of course, there's always water," her grandmother said, much too perky for this time in the morning. Except, Kari realized, it was the middle of the night in Tokyo. Then, she decided that it must just be the jetlag and jumping time zones that had messed up her internal clock.

"Orange juice is fine," Kari told her. "Though, I should warn you, mom's totally dependant on coffee in the morning."

Her grandmother looked almost regretful for a second, before she said, "Thank you for warning me. I'll try to remember that."

"Speaking of mom, is she still sleeping?" Kari wanted to know.

The older woman merely nodded, her focus back on the stove. When she decided their breakfast was complete, she laid the slices of bacon onto a plate and placed them on the counter in front of Kari along with a dish of scrambled eggs.

Kari heaped generous helpings of both bacon and eggs onto a plate her grandmother handed to her. She was chewing on a very scrumptious piece of bacon when something cold and wet touched the other hand that was by her side.

She jumped in surprise, dropping the slice of bacon she was holding, and a large English sheepdog quickly finished it for her.

"That's just Missy," her grandmother stated coolly, as if Kari hadn't just almost had a heart attack at her kitchen counter. "She was your grandfather's retirement present thirteen years ago…"

Kari did the calculations in her head. If her grandfather had retired when she was three, then… "When did he…?" Kari felt uncomfortable saying it, if not a little embarrassed to bring it up. She didn't even know when her own grandfather had passed away.

"It was two years after we got Missy. Eleven years last month. I'm almost ashamed to ask, but how old were you then?"

"Five. And Tai would have been eight." They continued eating their breakfast, stuck in a very awkward silence. Missy interrupted them by trotting over to the front door, then turning around to give them a pleading look.

Grandma Kate stood up and piled their dishes by sink. "I'm going to take Missy for a walk. While we're gone, why don't you wake your mother up, get dressed, and whatever else you need to do, and when I get back, we'll go see the sights. There's the bridge, the Twin Peaks, Lombard Street…"

She went on listing places Kari had never heard of, pulling on a pair of worn tennis shoes. Then she attached a leash to Missy's collar, and headed out the door.

Kari still felt bad for revealing how little she knew about her grandfather, so she thought she would clean up their breakfast dishes for her. First, though, she made up another plate of food, poured a fresh glass of orange juice, and made her way upstairs.

She used her foot to push open the door of her mother's bedroom. The heavy curtains were drawn over the windows, preventing any light from getting into the room. Still, Kari could detect a table to the right of the bed where her mother lay wrapped in her sheets. Kari set the breakfast down on the table and pulled back the curtains.

Light flooded into the room, causing her mother to groan and roll over, like a teenager fighting against a day of school.

"Good morning," Kari tried to say cheerily.

Her mother grunted a response similar to the one Kari had given her grandmother downstairs.

Kari pulled the blankets back so she could tell her mother that she had brought her breakfast-in-bed and that Grandma Kate had plans for today.

Slowly, Mrs. Kamiya sat up and started picking at the food in front of her. "Is there any coffee?" she asked.

"Sorry," Kari said, truly apologetic, "but there's milk, apple juice, water, and some sort of mango-pineapple combination downstairs if you'd rather have that."

"This is perfect, thank you Kari," she replied, giving her daughter a bright smile.

Kari left her mom to her breakfast, finished cleaning up the kitchen, and headed back to her new attic room. The first thing she noticed was the round window overlooking the street. She looked out, her first daylight view of San Francisco. The other houses on the street were three story row houses, like her grandmothers. Though theirs was slightly more than three stories, it was far from the tallest because the street was on such a high slope, so all of the houses to the right appeared taller. Cars passed by below, and people rushed down the sidewalks, the neighborhood very much alive at eight thirty on a Monday morning.

She turned back to look at her new room. Her suitcase and backpack were in a heap at the top of the stairs where she had left them the night before, there was a tarnished full-length mirror in the corner, an old wooden dresser, and some boxes off to the side.

She discovered that the drawers were empty, and clean, so she didn't hesitate to fill them with all of her clothes. Afterwards, she grabbed a pair of khaki capri pants, and a white tank top, and headed downstairs to take a quick shower.

A short while later, Grandma Kate and Missy returned from their walk and both Kari and her mother were ready for the day ahead of them. They loaded back into her grandmother's Ford Focus and took a scenic route through the city.

They drove down Lombard Street, the one with the tight curves, they saw the Golden Gate Bridge, the Ghirardelli chocolate factory (which isn't really a factory, but a shopping plaza), Fisherman's Wharf (another shopping plaza), Chinatown, the Twin Peaks, Alcatraz, and the famous San Francisco cable cars.

Every interesting sight that she saw from the lonely backseat made Kari miss T.K. and her friends even more. As soon as they get back to her grandmother's house, Kari decided, she was going to e-mail T.K. and tell him everything that she hadn't said.

Grandma Kate slowed down as they passed a very large, modern looking building.

"This is where you'll be going to school Kari. I've already talked to the principal, and you'll be starting tomorrow."

Kari reassessed the building, and felt like she wanted to cry. It was a nice enough looking building, yet thinking about starting at a new school, left her with a lonely, empty feeling.

When they finally pulled into Grandma Kate's driveway, Kari was thoroughly distraught over her first day of school. They entered the house and were immediately greeted by Missy, reminding them that she needed to be taken for a walk.

Kari was the first to volunteer to take her, thinking that a relaxing walk would help her clear her thoughts.

"Kari, while you're out, do you mind stopping at the Coffee Beanery around the corner to get some ground coffee for your mother. When you go inside, just tie Missy's leash to a parking meter or something, she's usually pretty good about staying put. And don't worry if you get the streets confused, Missy knows the city pretty well."

Kari walked back outside, gripping Missy's leash tightly. Sunset was almost finished, and the fog was rolling in over the city, as it apparently does every night. They walked at a steady pace down the block, passing plenty of people, yet none that she recognized.

She easily found the café her grandmother had mentioned, and a second later had Missy firmly secured to a lamppost. Almost uncomfortably she grabbed a bag of her mom's favorite coffee beans and gave them to the cashier to ring up.

Though she was trying not to eavesdrop, she couldn't help but notice the odd group of kids sitting at a table by the window. There were four of them, two blonde girls who looked to be about Kari's age, and were most definitely identical twins, a really tall boy with glasses and dark brown hair, and a little boy who couldn't have been older than ten years old.

The thing that was so odd about them was that they were completely silent. They were the most depressed looking kids Kari had ever seen. On her way out of the store, one of the twins met her eyes. Kari smiled intuitively, and surprisingly, the girl smiled back.

Kari untied Missy, thinking that, just maybe, this wouldn't be so bad.

However, things changed from bad to worse soon after she got back to her grandmother's house. She had just entered the study to e-mail T.K., when she realized something very important. There was no computer in there.

There was no computer in her grandmother's room, none in her mother's room, not in the living room, the kitchen, the attic, or even the garage. Panic settled in, and Kari felt the need to hyperventilate.

"Grandma Kate! Mom!"

"What? What is it honey?" came the concerned responses.

"I can't find Grandma Kate's computer."

"Oh, I've never had any use for a computer. You know those can get pretty expensive," her grandmother explained casually.

"Oh, Kari," her mother said sympathetically. "I wouldn't worry too much. I'm sure your new school will have a computer lab."

Kari couldn't even say anything in response. Her life had just gone from pretty bad to even worse. Inconsolably unhappy, Kari climbed the stairs to the attic, where she would begin writing out a letter to T.K. by hand.


	5. Fragile

Never Far 

**Chapter 5- Fragile**

Kari stepped outside the front door, her backpack slung over her shoulder, letters to both T.K. and Yolei clutched in her hand. Her grandmother had given her a few stamps for them so she slipped them inside the mailbox and met her grandmother in the car.

On the way to school, Grandma Kate broke the silence by saying, "I'm sorry."

When she didn't say anything else, Kari asked, "About what?"

"I can't imagine that you wanted to come here. I know how much you must miss your friends. Your mother's going through a hard time, but I don't want you to worry about it. At this time in your life, you should be focused on your schoolwork and your relationship with your friends. I truly hope this works out for you."

It was then that Kari realized that the two of them might have more in common than she thought, and that she was glad that to have finally met her.

"Thank you," Kari told her, struggling to hold back tears. She wondered if her overemotional state had anything to do with the jetlag as well. "That means a lot to me."

She hugged her grandmother and climbed out of the car. Grandma Kate waved to her as she drove away, leaving Kari standing on the curb, surrounded by teenagers rushing into the enormous building behind her.

She hitched her backpack up higher on her shoulders and headed towards the front entrance of the school. Once inside there was a large sign reading 'Main Office' with an arrow to the right. After that, it wasn't difficult to meet with her guidance counselor who had already been working on her schedule.

Most of her classes from Japan had coincided with the American coursework, so she ended up with World History, Photography, Chemistry, Pre-Calculus, American Literature, and Computers, in that order. By the time they were finished sorting things out, she had already missed first hour, and part of second. Then she had to wait even longer while he called down another student that could show her around until third hour started.

So, Kari was waiting patiently in an overly fluffy chair in the front office, when a girl with pale blonde hair, clear skin, and intense green eyes emerged from one of the offices behind the front desk. Kari immediately recognized her as one of the twins she had seen at the Coffee Beanery the night before.

"Are you Kari?" she asked.

Kari nodded, standing up and pulling her backpack onto her shoulder once more.

"I'm Hannah," the girl continued, extending her hand.

Kari shook Hannah's hand. "Nice to meet you," she said.

"Well, I'm supposed to show you around," Hannah said, "so let's start by stopping off at your locker."

Hannah looked at Kari's schedule and led her out of the office. Kari took note of which hallway they were in and which way they were going as Hannah showed her where all of her classes were, and also led her to places like the cafeteria, the gym, swimming pool, and the locker rooms.

"I have third hour chemistry too," Hannah said, trying to make conversation.

"That's great, I'll know one person," Kari replied, accidentally revealing her insecurity about being in a new place.

Hannah stopped talking, afraid that she might have offended Kari. So Kari broke the silence asking, "What do you have second hour and how did you get out of it to give me the tour?"

Hanna smiled, "I don't really have a second hour. I'm taking mostly advanced classes, so I wanted at least one hour that wasn't stressful so I'm an aide for the front office. I run errands, deliver messages, and give tours to people who don't know their way around."

Kari was about to say more when the ball rang, signaling the end of second hour. The two girls then headed to Hannah's locker and then on to chemistry.

In chemistry, Kari was extremely thankful to learn that she wasn't behind in the curriculum at all. In fact, with the science classes she had had in Japan, she was actually pretty far ahead of most of the kids in her class. Most, meaning everyone except Hannah. Hannah was obviously the brightest girl in the class, and the teacher's pet, something that Kari could easily relate to.

Before long, an hour had passed and Kari and Hannah were off to lunch.

"You can sit with me," Hannah said, grabbing Kari's arm as she left the chemistry room. They stopped off at their lockers for their lunches and then headed to the cafeteria, Kari surprisingly, remembering the way.

Kari had expected a girl like Hannah to sit at the lunch table with the most beautiful, popular girls and guys, so she was once again surprised when Hannah led them to a secluded table in the corner with only one occupant.

Kari instantly recognized the tall boy at the table as the one who had been with Hannah at the Coffee Beanery the night before. When Hannah and Kari approached the table, he looked up from the book he was reading to give Kari a quizzical look.

"Kari this is my boyfriend, Tom. Tom, this is Kari, she's new, " Hannah said.

Tom nodded, and the girls sat down across from him. "Where are you from Kari?" he asked.

"Japan," she sad, rather unemotionally.

"That's cool," he responded before immersing himself back in his book.

Meanwhile, Kari and Hannah chatted easily, Kari telling Hannah about the differences between Japan and California, and Hannah telling Kari about her classes, more about the teachers, and about some of the kids.

Hannah was listing the names of some of the other students that Hannah was friends with, when Kari met the eyes of Hannah's sister. Unlike Hannah's friendly gaze however, the other set of intense green eyes was glaring at Kari.

Hannah's sister stood up and crossed the distance to the table where Kari, Hannah and Tom were sitting, eating (and reading) peacefully. She came over to the table, smiling a truly fake and cheesy smile. After greeting Tom and Hannah warmly, she turned to Kari.

"Hi, I'm Lynn, are you new?"

Kari suddenly felt self-conscious, once again pining for her friends in Odaiba. "Yeah," Kari replied, but by then Lynn had already turned away from Kari.

Lynn continued her conversation with Hannah and Tom, purposely ignoring Kari's presence except for the occasional rude and unfriendly glance.

After she left, Hannah immediately apologized for her sister's behavior. "She's just not usually comfortable around people she doesn't know really well."

"Yeah, you know those extremely shy, popular cheerleader types," Tom commented sarcastically. Hannah rolled her eyes, but before she could defend her sister once again, the bell rang for them to head off to fourth hour.

Next, Kari had pre-calculus, another class where Kari found that she was ahead of the game. So, she spent a relaxing hour zoning out, planning out her next letter to T.K., and trying to figure out how long it would take for him to receive the one she sent that morning.

American Literature, however, Kari found that she was clueless. Her teacher handed her a torn up copy of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and gave her a week to read it. So, during the class hour, Kari tried her best to pay attention to every word the teacher said, copying all of the notes exactly.

She didn't even notice that the guy sitting next to her was staring at her the whole time. The rest of the class was on the last two chapters of the novel, so they were given the last fifteen minutes of class time to read silently.

However, as soon as the teacher sat down at her desk, the kid sitting next to her said, "Hi, I'm Drew. You must be the new girl."

"Is it that obvious?" Kari whispered back.

"Only because you were the only one actually listening to the lesson." Kari felt herself blush a little. She hadn't realized that nobody else had been interested.

"I've never even heard of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," Kari whispered, as she opened up her copy of the book to the first page.

Drew smiled at her, "It's not that great. Well, I've only read a few chapters, but the parts I read were pretty boring."

Kari laughed, he reminded her a lot of Davis. Kari copied his notes from the previous chapters, and then it was time for the students to switch classes once again.

It turns out that Drew, Hannah, and Tom were all in her computers class. However, she didn't get another chance to talk to Drew because as soon as he entered the room, Lynn pulled him over to the computer next to hers, and they spent the whole hour flirting with each other.

Kari didn't really mind, she wasn't interested in him that way at all, but Hannah made sure that she knew all about him and Lynn.

"Have you met Drew yet? He's a nice guy. I think he's going out with my sister, but I'm not really sure. I can't keep track of their relationship," Hannah informed her, and that was all that she said on the topic.

When their teacher fell asleep at his desk, and all of the kids continued surfing the internet and instant messaging each other, Kari decided that it would be a good time to check her e-mail.

As soon as she signed in to her account, the screen began blinking at her, she had twelve new e-mails. Seven were from T.K., two were from Yolei, and one from both Tai and Davis. Kari smiled to herself, clicked open the first letter and began to read.


	6. Revelation

Never Far 

**Chapter 6- Revelation**

The next morning, Kari was pulled out of a comfortable sleep by the sound of loud shouting. By the time she was out of bed, dressed, and ready for school, her mother and grandmother were still going at it in the kitchen.

"Is it so wrong for a mother to want to contact her only son, who happens to be living on his own on the other side of the world!" her mother shouted, waving Grandma Kate's cordless telephone in her right hand.

"Only when you want to use my phone line to call long distance to Tokyo for two hours!" Grandma Kate retorted. "I don't see you offering to pay any of my utility bills!"

"Well, where were you when Tai was three and Kari was a baby and I needed help looking after them?"

Missy was the only one who noticed as Kari slipped out the front door, deciding on walking the few blocks to the high school. She tried not to let her mother's problems disturb her or shake her focus.

Twenty minutes later, she was still trying to convince herself of that, when she stepped into her first hour, which was World History, for the first time. A wave of sound engulfed her as she stepped through the doorway. Kids were sitting on the tabletops, throwing notes and paper airplanes at each other, there was even a stereo set up on the back counter, blaring a new rock band.

Lynn was sitting on the counter, squeezed in between Drew and the stereo.

"Hey Lynn, what are we listening to?" Drew yelled over noise.

"It's a new band. They're called The Teenage Wolves, aren't they awesome!" she yelled back.

The Teenage Wolves, Kari thought, as the imaginary light bulb above her head clicked on. That was Matt's band. No wonder it sounded so familiar to her. She sat down in a vacant seat, singing along to Matt's voice in her head.

Suddenly, the door opened and it was like someone put a spell on the students. The stereo was unplugged and hidden beneath a desk. The notes and paper airplanes somehow made their way to the trashcan, and miraculously, every student sat down quietly at the desks.

All of this happened in a split second, because after that, their teacher entered. In Japan, Kari had never been much interested in world history, however, after her first lesson with Mr. Thompson, she was most definitely interested. He was a younger man, an average height, and very attractive. But more importantly, he was the kind of teacher that tried to relate the historical events to his students; one of those 'fun teachers' that everyone couldn't help but like.

At the end of the hour, Kari was almost sorry to hear the bell ring, but she quickly changed her mind when she realized that Photography was her second hour. Kari had always loved taking pictures, ever since her father had given her a digital camera for her twelfth birthday. That was the year that they had spent saving the digital world once again, and all through their adventures, Kari had been the unofficial photographer.

Now, all of her treasured photo albums were packed in a cardboard box, somewhere between California and Japan.

When she got to the photography room, the teacher, Mrs. Anderson, issued her one of the schools semi-working, beaten up digital cameras. Then she was given her first assignment. Mrs. Anderson wanted Kari to take 'interesting landscape photos,' as she put it.

Kari let her creative nature take over her then, trying to decide which angles of the park between her grandmother's house and the school she could use for her assignment. However, the bell interrupted her, and she left to meet Hannah at her locker before chemistry.

In her excitement over her new project, Kari told Hannah all about it. But, Hannah, being a logical person, asked why she didn't just take pictures of the bay, or the Golden Gate Bridge, or any of the tourist attractions in the city.

Hannah's answer gave her something to think about as their chemistry teacher lectured on a topic Kari had already learned about. True, Kari already had some great shots of the scenery from her family's sightseeing venture the other day.

The best place I could go, Kari thought, would be the digital world. In her daydreams, she saw all of the exotic flowers and bizarre plant species. She laughed to herself, if she could go there, Gatomon would want to pose for her.

On her blank page of notes, Kari attempted a sketch of her old friend, Gatomon. Surprisingly, the final result looked pretty accurate, if Kari did say so herself.

"What's that?" Hannah asked from beside Kari, also not paying attention to the boring lesson.

"Uh…" Kari stammered, "It's nothing." She didn't exactly want to have to explain digital monsters to Hannah, who most likely wouldn't believe her anyway.

Hannah gave her a strange look that weirdly unsettled her, though Kari shrugged it off despite her uneasiness.

However, Hannah was strangely quiet at lunch, and later that day, Kari finally found out why.

In sixth hour computers, Kari was deeply absorbed in the one letter T.K. had written her that hadn't consisted of just "Dear Kari, I miss you, I wish you were here."

It went: "Dear Kari, I'm sorry if what I said at the airport upset you in any way. It was an irrational thing to say, just please forget that it ever happened. Of course, I do love you, you're my best friend, how could I not love you? I just don't want anything to happen to our friendship, but then, what could be worse than five thousand miles of ocean between us? Ignore me, I'm just worried because you haven't replied to any of the e-mails I've sent you. I hope it's not because you have a new boyfriend. If that is the reason, then I guess I'm just going to have to come and kick his-"

"Kari!" a soft voice exclaimed, though she didn't recognize it.

She looked over her shoulder. Hannah and Tom were next to her, both engrossed in their own computer screens. She turned around to see behind her. The only other people in the room who knew her name were Lynn and Drew, and those two were also both not paying attention.

"Kari Kamiya!" said the voice again.

She was about to stand up to ensure that no one was sitting on the other side of her computer.

"Kari! Over here!" She was thoroughly confused. It almost sounded like it was coming from her computer…

She minimized the screen with T.K.'s letter and nearly jumped out of her chair. A four inch tall Gennai was standing on her menu bar. He waved to her, a big goofy grin beneath his bushy, white mustache.

"It's nice to see you again, Kari!" he said.

Kari looked over her shoulders again, this time to make sure that no one was giving her any suspicious looks. Then, she leaned a little closer to her monitor and whispered, "Hi Gennai, it's good to see you too, but what are you doing in my computer?"

"Well, this is a little difficult to explain through the internet, but we really need your help here in the digital world."

"What do you mean? What's going on there? And who's 'we'?" she demanded.

"Oh my God!" Hannah's voice interrupted.

"Hannah," Kari hesitated, once again lost for an explanation. "I can explain…" she lied.

"I knew it!" Hannah said rather loudly, causing the snoring instructor to shift in his sleep.

"Knew what?" Kari asked, as Gennai sat down on the menu bar, seemingly amused with the conversation between the two girls.

"The cartoon you were drawing in chemistry. It was a digimon, wasn't it?" Hannah asked, proud realization on her face.

"How do you know about digimon?" Kari asked, getting Tom interested in their conversation as well.

"Wait," Tom said, "how does Kari know about digimon?" He gave Hannah an accusing glance.

"Maybe I can explain," Gennai finally interrupted. "Hannah, Tom, Kari is one of the original digi-destineds. She and her partner Gatomon have been helping to save the digital world since she was eight years old."

Hannah and Tom were staring at Kari, their eyes as wide as softballs. "Now, Kari," Gennai continued, "Hannah and Tom are two members of the rather small team of American digi-destineds."

Students began to file out of the computer lab, and Kari hadn't even heard the bell ring. A few minutes later, even the sleeping teacher was gone, and still the three of them were standing in front of Kari's computer, staring at each other, as though meeting for the first time.

Lynn, however, had not left the lab with the other students, and slowly approached the three of them. "Kari," Gennai asked, "have you met Lynn? She leads the American digi-destineds."

Kari turned around to see Lynn standing behind her, glaring straight at her. Then, Kari did something she had never thought she would ever be capable of doing, and said, "I don't know what you want from me Gennai, but I can't help you. I can't help anyone."

Neither Hannah, Tom, Lynn, nor Gennai could say anything in response before Kari hightailed it out of the lab. She ran down a flight of stairs, not even bothering to stop at her locker before dashing through the front doors.

She was halfway down the building's front steps, when a voice called from behind her, "Kari! Wait up!"

She forced herself to ignore it, suspecting it to be Hannah or Tom, two people that she really didn't want to talk to at the moment. A second later, though, a hand gripped her arm and forced her to a stop.

She whirled around, arms raised to defend herself, when her eyes met Drew's smiling face. "What are you running for? Are you okay? Do you want me to walk you home?"

"No, I'm fine," Kari said coldly, already turning back towards her grandmother's house.

Drew wouldn't take no for an answer though. She walked on down the sidewalk, and he matched her pace silently.

However, after a while, he couldn't contain himself anymore, and said, "Kari, do you think, maybe, you would ever let me take you out on a date?"

Fighting the ridiculous urge to burst into laughter, Kari retorted with, "I thought you and Lynn were an item."

"No," he replied quickly. "We're just really good friends. We tried dating a few times though, but it just didn't work for us, so we decided to just be friends."

"I know that we don't really know each other very well, but can I ask you a kind of personal question?" she asked him.

"Sure…" he said hesitantly.

"Well, say that you were in love, like once-in-a-lifetime, real, honest to God, true love, and you'd never told her how you felt. So, when she had to leave for a long time and you might not ever see her again, you would tell her right?" She wasn't sure if she was making sense or not, but she needed to talk about it to someone.

He nodded slowly, unsure of where this conversation was heading.

"So," Kari continued, "you tell her how you feel, but she doesn't say anything. Let's say, she just walks away, and never says it back."

"What's your point?" he asked, extremely confused.

"Well, would you still love her the same way even if she didn't say anything?"

"Umm…I'm not really sure what we're talking about now. Is this about your boyfriend in Japan?"

"Yeah."

"Well," he asked, "do you love him?"

"With all my heart."

"Then I'm sure he knows, and if he doesn't, then he's an idiot, and you should break it off with him and go out with me."

She rolled her eyes. Drew was more like Davis than she had realized.

"I'm just kidding," he said. "I'm sorry for asking you out. I hope it works out. He's a lucky guy."

They had arrived at Kari's grandmother's house. "Thank you. And thank you for just listening, I needed that."

"Anytime," he said, giving her an innocent hug before she headed up the stairs to the front door.


	7. Beginning

Never Far 

**Chapter 7- Beginning**

Entering the house was like walking into a war zone, just before a battle. Kari's mother was sitting at the counter, mindlessly flipping through a magazine, while Grandma Kate was perched on the sofa in the living room, staring at the television set, even though it wasn't turned on. Missy lay sprawled out on the floor between the two rooms, alternating glances at the two women, as if she were keeping them in line.

The two weren't speaking, or even looking, at each other, yet the tension was almost strong enough to push Kari back out the front door. Terrified of what could possibly happen if she broke their silence, she closed the door gently before slipping off her tennis shoes as silently as she could.

However, as soon as she took a step onto the first stair, her foot landed on something white and fluffy.

"Geez, Kari, first you don't even say hello, and then you step on my tail?" said the white, fluffy object, leaping into Kari's arms.

"Gatomon?" Kari asked incredulously. "What are you doing here?"

"She arrived just a few minutes before you did," Mrs. Kamiya said from the kitchen. "I reassured Kate that she was your friend and told her that you'd be home soon."

"Friend, or not, just make sure it's housebroken." Grandma Kate interrupted.

Gatomon made a face and rolled her eyes, but followed Kari up the staircases to her room. As soon as she opened the door for her friend, the catlike digimon jumped onto Kari's mattress.

"So where are T.K. and Patamon? Are they ready to kick some bad guy butt?" she asked excitedly.

Kari frowned. "Uhh…T.K.'s not here…"

"Well, where is he?" she asked, now that both of them were confused.

"T.K.'s in Japan. Where else would he be?"

The cutest expression came on her face as she tried to figure out what Kari was telling her. "But I thought Gennai sent you here to help the Americans. How come he sent you without T.K.?"

"Gatomon," Kari began, "Gennai didn't send me here…" She went on to explain that her parents were getting a divorce, but as soon as she said that, Gatomon asked what she meant, so she had to explain that too.

"So it's like what happened to Matt and T.K.'s parents? They just stopped loving each other?" Gatomon asked.

"Kind of," Kari tried to clarify, and Gatomon nodded. "So did Gennai send you here to convince me to help the Americans?"

"Yeah, but if you don't want to, I guess I could just hang out for a while before going back…" Gatomon answered.

"What's going on in the digital world? Why do they need our help?"

"It's not as bad as it sounds," she explained, "without Malomyotismon's control, things have almost been working. It's just that there's still a few unpleasant digimon who would like to try to take over. So, really, it's nothing abnormal, nothing the digi-destineds shouldn't be able to handle, but that seems to be the problem in these parts. These new American kids just aren't strong enough on their own, but who can blame them since there's only four of them."

Kari nodded, easily calculating that she and Gatomon would be a huge amount of help to the American team. The only thing holding her back was that it didn't change her situation. She would still be the new girl, she would still be all alone, and T.K. still wouldn't be here. She knew what she would do if he were here, she knew what he would do in her situation.

Before she could say anything, her mother shrieked her name up the stairs.

"Kari! There's someone here to see you!"

Kari sighed, she hoped it wasn't Drew. She thought that she had made it clear to him why she wouldn't go out with him.

Slowly, Kari walked down the stairs, Gatomon a step behind her. When Kari reached the landing, she was surprised to see her mother holding the door open for Hannah's sister, Lynn. She could tell that it was Lynn from her tight blue jeans and formfitting T-shirt. Lynn and Hannah's taste in clothing was the way that Kari had yet found to tell them apart.

Lynn met her eyes as Kari walked down the stairs towards her, and this would have to have been the first time that she wasn't glaring at the new girl.

Mrs. Kamiya smiled and decided that she would suffer her mother's company to leave the two girls alone in the kitchen.

Kari led Lynn over to a barstool, while Gatomon leapt onto the counter between them.

"This is Gatomon, Gatomon, this is Lynn," Gatomon smiled a greeting that only a few people might have been comfortable with.

"Kari," Lynn said hesitantly, "I'm sorry if I was rude to you, I really didn't mean anything by it…what I'm trying to say is…please help us. We're trying, but we need help. At first I didn't want to admit it, but I know it's the truth now. I can see how our failure to protect this area of the digital world has been starting to affect my friends."

Kari smiled, cutting her off, "You don't have to keep going if you don't want to, I've already decided to help you."

"Really?" Lynn and Gatomon both asked at the same time.

Kari nodded, much to Lynn and Gatomon's excitement.

"Okay, then, let's go!" she said, already pulling her shoes on.

Less than ten minutes later, Lynn, Kari, and Gatomon burst into the computer lab where Hannah and Tom were standing beside a younger boy. Lynn quickly introduced the boy as Mikey, and it might have just been her easiness with younger children, but there was something about him that she liked instinctively.

As soon as they all met Gatomon, Tom opened up the digital port crossed over to where four rookie level digimon were waiting patiently for their human partners.

It turns out that Lynn was partnered with a friendly Gazimon, a digimon that looked somewhat like a big, gray rabbit. Hannah was with a warm hug from a red and blue striped Elecmon. A small, finned Betamon jumped at Tom's feet excitedly until he picked him up into his arms. And as soon as they got there, Mikey ran into the arms of a small doglike Labramon.

A second later, Labramon trotted up to Gatomon and gave her a sniff. Surprisingly, Gatomon just laughed and pushed her away.

"She smells fun Mikey," Labramon said as she moved on to sniff Kari's hand.

Mikey looked up at Kari and gave her a heartwarming smile. That's when Kari realized why she had naturally liked Mikey, with his sandy, light brown hair gathered underneath a red baseball cap, he reminded her of T.K. when she first met him eight years ago.

The others had started to walk away, so Mikey grabbed Kari's hand, pulling her through the trees.

"Come on, Kari!" he said, enthusiastically, and Kari ran with him to catch up to the others.

Several hours later, the digi-destineds emerged from the computer after taking care of a few rowdy Tyrannomon. Gatomon had decided to stay with the other digimon, so it was just the five kids.

Mikey was almost asleep so Lynn picked him up and carried him piggyback style. They stealthily snuck out of the school, and Kari realized that the sun had already set.

Lynn led the way down the sidewalk, still carrying Mikey on her back. Behind her were Tom and Hannah, with his arm wrapped around her waist. Kari brought up the rear, studying the group, feeling an unknown obligation to help them in any way she could.

Tom leaned closer to Hannah and whispered something in her ear. She giggled and told the others that they 'had to work on a project,' so they were going over to Tom's house.

"Whatever," was Lynn's response, as the two were already heading down a side street. "Do you want to come with me to take Mikey home?" Lynn asked.

"Sure," Kari said as they continued down the sidewalk.

"So," Lynn said a little while later, "has Drew asked you out yet? He told me he was going to."

Kari blushed, "Yeah, this afternoon, but I'm not looking for a boyfriend."

"Is there a guy in Japan?"

"Yeah."

"Is he a didi-destined?"

"Yep, that's how we met."

"What's his crest?" asked Mikey, who both girls thought was asleep.

Kari was confused for a second, she didn't know that any of the other digi-destineds had a crest besides Ken. "He has the crest of hope. Do you guys have crests too?"

"Mine's Faith," said Mikey.

Lynn smiled, "Mine's Loyalty."

Kari smiled, it was perfect for her. "I have the crest of light."

"Hannah's is Compassion, and Tom's is Patience," Mikey informed her.

Kari nodded, understanding more about her friends with this new information.

Mikey yawned, stretching his jaw wider than Kari believed was possible. Then, he jumped off of Lynn and dashed up the walkway to a small, white row house, where a familiar man opened the door for him.

Mikey grabbed his hand, pulling him out to the sidewalk. "Come meet my new friend Kari, dad," he said excitedly.

Although it was hard to make out his face in the dim light, Kari recognized the man as her world history teacher, Mr. Thompson .

"Hello Kari, Lynn," he said politely, nodding at the two girls. "Thank you for taking care of Mikey. I'm glad that he has friends like you to take look after him. Now, for the record, you girls better get home and finish your homework."

Lynn and Kari laughed with him, waved goodbye and made their way home.

"Mikey's a good kid," Lynn said, after they were a good distance away. "I'm glad he found a friend like Labramon, it's been rough for him."

"What happened?" Kari asked, truly curious about her new younger friend. When he smiled at her, he reminded her of the younger T.K., always full of hope and innocence. Yet, there were other times when she had looked at him and he reminded her of her friend Cody. Cody was much too mature for his age, always reasonable and responsible.

"Mrs. Thompson died two years ago, Mikey was eight years old. It was just a few months before our first trip to the digital world."

"That's terrible," Kari responded. "He's lucky to have you, Hannah, and Tom."

They came to where they had to part ways, "I don't know what you guys have been through," Kari said, "but I hope that things will be different from now on."

Lynn smiled and they both went home for the night.


	8. Pining

Never Far 

**Chapter 8- Pining **

Kari was alone, walking through the forest of the digital world. It was raining and she was soaked to the bone. However, it was a warm, summer rain, so Kari didn't even mind that her clothes were now sticking to her skin, getting heavier with every step. Through the mist, a little ways ahead of her, she could make out a figure standing tall.

Kari's pace quickened as she moved toward it, noticing that they were both moving towards each other, as if they were drawn together like polar ends of a magnet.

Then, suddenly, she collided with her tall, blonde-haired, blue-eyed, and very wet best friend.

"T.K.," she whispered with some difficulty, as his lips were caressing hers. "I missed you."

"I missed you too Kari," he mumbled back, as he took her in his arms.

The rain lightened up, but both of them were too distracted to notice. T.K. deepened the kiss, and Kari went weak at the knees, pulling them both to the ground. Gently, he laid Kari down on the soft, mossy ground, his tongue slipping inside her mouth.

His hand slipped underneath her wet T-shirt, and he easily pulled it off her. She shuddered in pleasure as his hands touched her bare skin, and, wanting to return the favor, she quickly stripped him of his shirt as well, running her hands along his muscular chest.

"I love you," he whispered, as he lowered his mouth to her neck. She felt an aching, tingling sensation in her lower regions.

One of his hands was fondling her left breast, while the other one was unbuttoning her shorts, and slipping underneath the top of her underwear. She arched her back, raising her hips to press against his.

She opened her mouth to tell him that she loved him too, but at that moment…she woke up.

Kari's heart was pounding as she sat up in her bed, realizing that it had all been a dream. T.K. wasn't here, it had been almost seven long months of separation, and she was missing him now more than ever.

The new American digi-destined team had been doing a pretty good job of straightening out the digital worlds problems, and Kari was beginning to think that there wasn't any more reason for them to keep returning there.

Their spring break was coming up, and Kari had spent the last two weeks desperately trying to convince her mother that she should let her spend the week back in Japan.

"Absolutely not," was all that her mother ever said in response. So, naturally, Kari had tried to convince her grandmother to let her go. Unfortunately, not letting Kari spend her break in Japan seemed to be the only thing that the two women could ever agree on.

Kari was glad that she hadn't told T.K. that she was planning on visiting, now she wouldn't even have to tell him of her failure. But she did tell him other things, her next letter to him went as follows:

Dear T.K.,

Everyday that goes by makes me miss you more and more, but that doesn't mean that the nights are any easier. Last night I had a very _interesting_ dream about you...and me...together...if you know what I mean. Anyways, I just wish you were here. Things are only getting worse between my mother and grandmother, I swear, they're more immature than we were when we were eight. They refuse to speak to one another, so every time that they have something to say, they have to pass it through me. I think I'm going to go insane if this keeps up.

You said that you've been hanging out with Matt and Tai a lot, and there's something that I need to ask you. Tai completely avoids talking about my dad, as does my mother, though I know that both of them have been in contact with him. You know, I haven't spoken to him or heard from him since before I left Japan, even before I knew about the divorce.

I see the empty look in my mother's eyes when she thinks that I'm not looking, all of the pain that she feels. I came home from school one day and found this huge mess in the kitchen. It was like a tornado came through, there was food everywhere, a layer of flour covering every surface, and there was even something unidentifiable splattered on the ceiling. My mother was sitting on the floor, covered head-to-toe in her awful cooking, but the worst part is that she was sobbing.

I didn't know what to do, so I just sat down next to her and let her cry on my shoulder. She told me that she was trying a bunch of new recipes, hoping that one of them would turn out edible.

"I thought that maybe if I had been a better cook," she said to me through her tears, "then maybe he wouldn't have chosen her over me."

By then I was crying too, I've been thinking the same thing. I know it's probably a dumb, but I keep thinking that maybe if I had gotten better grades in school, or stayed with cheerleading, or just been better at something, he would have stayed with us. How come he doesn't want to talk to me? I feel like I failed at being a daughter, that I just wasn't good enough.

Now I'm just rambling, but thanks for letting me vent. Hope to see you soon.

Love, Kari

Dear Kari,

To begin, I miss you too, and I'm very interested in hearing more about this dream you had. I've had some _interesting _dreams about you too, but I'm not going to tell you about them, so the next time we see each other I can just demonstrate for you. Secondly, Davis was so excited to get a letter from you. At lunch, he burst into the cafeteria waving it in the air, and it's all he's been talking about for the last few days. Of course, I do that too, but I refrain myself if Davis is around, now that we've finally started to become pretty good friends.

It was kind of ironic that you wrote about your father in your last letter, since I got your letter on Friday, and Davis and I ran into him on Saturday. We were playing basketball at the park when we decided to go get some snacks from Yolei's parent's convenient store, and see if she was working. Well, it turned out that Yolei wasn't working, but anyways, we turned down one of the aisles, and there was your father and his girlfriend.

He was really friendly and nice to us, but that just made me dislike him even more. Then, he even had the nerve to ask me if I still kept in contact with you.

I said, "Of course I've kept in contact with Kari. That's what you do if you love someone."

Then, (I'm only telling you about this because I hope it helps you to realize what a bad choice your father made in picking a twenty-two-year-old bimbo over your mom) the bimbo said, "Oh my God! What a coinkidink! The girl that he loves has the same name as your daughter!"

I have to give Davis some credit here, he tried really hard to hold back his laughter, but really, it was a challenge. She had to be the most brain-dead person I have ever met.

Your father just smiled, and led her out of the store. It was probably a good thing, because if he had said anything else, we might have taken him out. Your father is an idiot for wanting to be with her. It's not your fault that he made the wrong decision, so please don't ever believe that his bad decision had anything to do with you. Kari, you're an amazing person, you're a great daughter, sister, best friend, girlfriend, and I could go on all day listing everything that I love about you. You're smart, you're funny, you're sweet, you're beautiful, you're friendly, you're fun, you're creative, you're passionate…seriously, I could go on all day, but I'm sure you've got things to do, a digital world to save, so I'll let you get on with it.

I love you, I need to see you soon,

Love, T.K.

Dear T.K.,

Thanks for telling me about the bimbo, it does make me feel better, and I want to tell you that I know what you meant at the airport that day. When you said that there were things too important to say in an e-mail, or a letter, but seeing as how I have no other option, I want you to know that I love you. I'm still kicking myself for not saying anything back to you at the airport. You're my best friend, and the sweetest guy I've ever met. You're the only guy I want to have _interesting _dreams about, the only guy that I ever want to demonstrate them for me.

I know this letter is kind of short, but I don't know what else to say, except for I love you. I've always loved you. It's a relief to finally say it, even through a letter. I can't wait to say it to you in person.

Love, Kari


	9. Excitement

Never Far 

**Chapter 9- Excitement**

It was late June in San Francisco, and Kari was secretly miserable. Back in the winter, she and T.K. had exchanged letters at least twice a week. But as time wore on, however, Kari began to receive fewer and fewer letters from him. Now, she only received a letter from him every two or three weeks.

True, she hadn't been writing as many letters either. At first there had been excuses on both of their parts. Without Kari around, T.K. and Davis were now the best of friends. Besides, T.K. was always spending most of his time on the basketball court, and he had told Kari in a letter that he was spending every weekend at his dad's apartment. He said that staying there had become an form of entertainment after Tai moved in.

In April Hannah and Lynn had both received their driver's licenses, and driving with Lynn was an adventure itself. Mostly, though, Kari kept herself busy. She had thought that if she kept busy, she wouldn't think about T.K., and if T.K. was forgetting about her, than she would make herself forget about him to.

At least, that's what she tried to convince herself. Inside, Kari was miserable, and her Californian friends were not oblivious to the fact.

Lynn managed to drag Hannah away from Tom long enough to plan a girl's night. By this, meaning that the two twins spontaneously arrived on Kari's doorstep with their sleeping bags and invaded her house.

They were sprawled out in her small attic room among bags of potato chips, tubs of ice-cream, and a plate of chocolate fudge brownies, currently involved in a game of Truth or Dare. By now, though, Kari and Hannah knew better than to accept one of Lynn's dares, and none of their dares even phased Lynn, so the game would be better known as simply Truth.

"Hannah, truth or dare?" Lynn asked, giving Hannah an option, even though Hannah's answer was the obvious one.

"Truth."

"How far have you and Tom gone?" Lynn asked mischievously. She winked at Kari, and Kari felt herself blush for some unknown reason.

"You can't ask that," Hannah said, "it's against the rules or something."

"You have to!" Lynn protested. "Right, Kari?"

Kari nodded her confirmation, helping herself to another spoonful of her favorite Rocky Road ice-cream.

"I'm not telling you that," Hannah continued to argue with her sister, "that's way too personal."

"Personal?" Lynn rebuked, "I'm your twin sister. You're supposed to tell me all of that stuff."

"Well, I'm not going to."

"Fine then," Lynn surprisingly conceded. "I didn't really want to know anyway." She made a disgusted face, but Hannah saw it.

"Like you can talk," Hannah smirked, "you've gone farther than I have."

Kari was surprised with this bit of information, and she gave Lynn an inquisitive look. "With who?" Kari demanded of her so-called best friend.

"It was last summer, before you moved here," Hannah answered for her. "Drew was having this big party, and…"

Lynn smacked her sister with a pillow, cutting the rest of her sentence off.

"Drew?" Kari asked. "Did you do it with Drew?"

"Hey," Hannah said. "It's my turn to ask a question. Kari, truth or dare?"

Kari knew that Hannah's dares wouldn't be too bad, but she was enjoying herself just talking with the two girls, so she said, "Truth."

Hannah's mischievous grin matched Lynn's as she asked, "Speaking of Drew, whatever happened to your boyfriend in Japan, the one that you told Drew you were in love with? Did something happen? Before he was all you used to talk about. T.K. this, and T.K. that, and we've noticed you haven't mentioned him lately…"

Lynn and Hannah exchanged serious glances their joking tones completely vanished. Kari glanced at the junk food and sleeping bags, seeing them in a different light.

"Ohh…" Kari said, "so this is a pity party?"

"No, of course not," Hannah reassured her. "We were just worried about you…"

"Did you two break up?" Lynn asked.

"I don't know," Kari said, suddenly feeling like crying. "I think we may be drifting apart, but I wouldn't know, since I haven't seem him in a year."

"Well, it's understandable," Hannah said, "long distance relationships are tough, especially when the distance part is an ocean."

"Yeah," Lynn agreed, "a couple summers ago I met this kid Jake at soccer camp who lived in Oakland. We tried the whole long distance thing, until I thought I'd surprise him at one of his tournaments. I got there in time to see him score the winning goal, but then I saw him celebrate by making out with his other girlfriend."

Hannah threw the pillow back at Lynn. "But I'm sure T.K. wouldn't cheat on you," she managed to say while viciously beating her sister with the pillow.

"The T.K. I used to know never would," Kari said, even though she wasn't sure they were listening anymore. "But I don't know if I even know him anymore…"

Lynn pulled a C.D. out of her bag and inserted it in Kari's stereo. Kari didn't even have to see the case, instantly recognizing Matt's voice through the speakers.

Lynn gazed at the C.D. cover for a second, and then said, "I know it's Kari's turn, but I have a good question. Hannah, truth or dare?"

"Truth."

"Who do you think is hotter Yamato or Takeru?"

Kari's heart stopped.

"Yama-what and who?" Hanna replied.

"You know, The Teenage Wolves…" Lynn rolled her eyes and threw the C.D. case at her blonde sister.

"Wait a minute," Kari said quietly, trying to figure out what was going on.

"Hmm, this is a hard decision," Hannah said, staring at the cover, ignoring Kari's unusual statement. "I don't know. Yamato's got the whole 'bad boy' thing going on, but Takeru's really hot."

"Takeru, as in Takeru Takaishi?" Kari managed to say.

"Uhh…" Lynn snatched the case back from Hannah and flipped through the cover. "Yeah, Takeru Takaishi. He's Yamato's little brother, so that's why they're both so hot."

"How did you know, Kari?" Hannah asked. "Oh my God, have you met him?"

Kari was lost for words. T.K. was in Matt's band? How come he hadn't mentioned that to her? Was she so unimportant that he wouldn't even tell her such an important detail?

Lynn and Hannah were both staring at her expectantly when Kari's phone began to ring. Rather than explain that T.K. and Takeru were the same person, and that she was supposedly dating a rock star, she decided to answer the phone instead.

"Hello?" she said into the receiver, while Lynn turned down the stereo, and Hannah helped herself to another brownie.

"Kari?" a voice replied, and although she hadn't heard it in a year, she recognized it immediately at the single word.

"T.K.?" she stammered, jaw dropping. Lynn's eyes widened, and Hannah ceased chewing.

"Yeah, umm…" he fumbled.

"T.K. it's great to hear from you, but my grandmother's going to kill me if she found out I was making long distance calls."

"Well, that's the thing, Kari," there was a dramatic pause. "This isn't a long distance call."

Kari was frozen in shock, which was only added on to the surprise of recently discovering his involvement in Matt's band.

"I know this is a lot to ask," T.K. said, "but I was wondering if you could come pick me up."

"Where are you?" Kari surprisingly managed to say.

"The airport, my plane just landed. Do you think you can come get me?"

"Yeah, sure, just wait for us outside after you get your luggage."

"Okay."

"Okay."

"Bye."

"See you soon."

Kari was still in shock as she hung up the phone.

"He's here?" Lynn asked, and Kari could only nod in response.

"Get your keys," she said, smiling despite all of her mixed emotions towards him. "Looks like you guys are finally going to meet the infamous T.K."

The twins pestered Kari for information the whole way to the airport, yet the few questions that Kari did answer, she replied with single word responses. They pulled in front of the terminal, and Kari was shaking, though she couldn't figure out why.

Lynn easily pulled the car behind a yellow taxi, and Hannah, who was in the front seat, began searching the thin crowd for T.K., despite the fact that she had never met him.

Kari, however, didn't have to look. She knew where he was standing before she could clearly see his face, sensing him instinctively. After Lynn parked the car, Kari shifted in her seat to look at T.K., savoring the few moments she could study him before he realized she was there.

He was wearing a big, light blue hoodie sweatshirt over blue jeans, with a baseball cap and dark sunglasses disguising him from any Teenage Wolves fans, yet Kari had no doubt that it was him.

Sooner than she expected, he turned, sensing her presence as she had felt him. Hannah and Lynn were still scanning the people leaving the building as Kari opened the door and climbed out of the car.

He was only a few steps away from Lynn's car, yet he closed the distance between them in a miniscule of a second. Kari was still trembling as she threw her arms around him, and he held her in a tight embrace.

Still in shock, Kari pulled T.K. into the backseat of Lynn's car beside her. Once inside, he removed his sunglasses and cap, ruffling his disheveled mass of golden hair. They had driven a few miles, and T.K.'s eyes never left Kari, he didn't even notice that there were other people in the car until Kari said, "These are my friends, Lynn and Hannah."

Hannah turned around and smiled at him. "I'm Hannah, this is Lynn, but it's okay if you can't tell us apart, it took Kari a few months."

T.K. smiled at her, "I'm Takeru, but you can call me T.K."

Lynn swerved violently at this, causing the car in the lane beside her to slam on his horn as she almost crashed into him. "Holy shit," she said disbelievingly. "You're Takeru Takaishi!"

"Yeah," T.K. said as he let go of the door handle he was clinging to. "So you're a fan of the Wolves."

Hannah smiled, "I knew it," she said before she turned around to tell Lynn she was going the wrong way.

The two sisters began another fight, giving Kari and T.K. a private moment in the backseat. "Why didn't you tell me you joined Matt's band?"

"I wanted it to be a surprise. That's why I haven't been writing a lot lately. I've been spending a lot of time with the band, and then we were on tour all summer. I didn't want you to suspect anything if my letters started coming from America."

"Oh," Kari said, regretting ever doubting him. Was it really not even an hour ago she considered that he might be cheating on her?

"Matt convinced me to sing with him because he said they were planning a tour in America and there was going to be a show in San Francisco," T.K. continued. "But then, I found out a couple of weeks ago that Matt cancelled the San Francisco show because he wanted to spend more time in New York and Los Angeles."

"So, why are you here? And where's Matt?"

"I don't know where he is. We got into a fight in New York and he got on a plane to Los Angeles, and I got on a plane to San Francisco."

Kari didn't know what to say, her wonder rendering her speechless for the second time in her life, the first time being the night she had learned of her parent's divorce.

"Kari, say something," T.K. said gently, his hand brushing her cheek.

And, "I love you," was what came out.


	10. Comfort

Never Far 

**Chapter 10- Comfort**

Lynn and Hannah bounded up the steps to Kari's house, while she and T.K. followed at a much slower pace. Kari and T.K. almost bumped into the twins at the top of the stairs, however, not even noticing that the two girls had yet to enter the house. Three curious pairs of eyes stared knowingly at Kari as they overheard the shouting match taking place inside.

Kari groaned inwardly. Her mother and grandmother were shrieking so loudly this time that it was a wonder the whole neighborhood hadn't heard them. Stealthily, Kari unlocked the door and crept inside.

"All you care about is that stupid dog!" Kari's mother screeched. "You somehow couldn't ever manage to help me out when I needed it, yet the dumb dog is spoiled rotten!"

"At least I care about some things more than I care about myself!" Grandma Kate screeched back.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Only that it's a wonder Kari doesn't hate you. She's miserable here, and what have you done to help her? Absolutely nothing! It's been all about you since your good-for-nothing husband ran out, and you know what, I don't blame him!"

The four teenagers had reached the attic door, though they could still hear every word clearly. Kari winced as they brought her name into the argument. T.K. grabbed her hand and squeezed it comfortingly. She smiled and led the way to the attic.

"I'm sorry you had to hear that," Kari apologized to her three friends.

"It's okay, Kari," Lynn replied.

"Yeah, but I think it would probably be better if we left," said Hannah. "I can tell this is uncomfortable for you. We can reschedule this girls' night for next week, okay?"

"Okay"

"Besides," Lynn added, "the whole girls' night thing is kind of ruined with T.K. here." She winked at Kari. "I think you two would rather _we_ weren't here, anyways."

Kari blushed, and tried to deny it, but Hannah actually agreed with her twin for once. They gathered their stuff and left the house as quietly as they entered, since the drama was still unfolding downstairs.

After they left, a silence settled over the two of them that was anything but awkward. "It's funny," Kari said, as they sat on her floor, leaning against the wall. "There's so many things that I couldn't wait to see you to talk about, but now that you're here I can't remember any of them."

"I know," he said, "but I don't care, it's not important. What's important is just being together."

The night wore on and Kari's mother and grandmother were still shouting in the kitchen, the noise echoing through the house so that it could be clearly heard in the attic, Kari and T.K., however, forgot all about it, simply enjoying the thrill of being close once more. They eventually fell asleep in her bed with their arms wrapped around each other and their bodies pressed close. It was the most comfortable sleep Kari had ever gotten, until about nine o'clock in the morning, when Kari's mother walked in and found them there.

"What the hell is going on here?" Kari's mother screamed as she reached the top of the attic stairs.

T.K. shot from under the blankets so fast that the older woman might not have seen him if she hadn't been staring so intently.

"Kari Kamiya, I would have expected better from you," she continued to shout.

"Mom! Nothing happened!" Kari protested, glancing at T.K. for support. T.K., however, was backing towards the wall, extremely uncomfortable with the situation.

Kari's mother noticed T.K. and her expression softened for a second, before she turned her anger on him. "Takeru, what are you doing here? Does your mother know that you're here?"

He tried to respond in his own defense but she wouldn't let him get a word in. "Honestly, I would have thought that you two, of all people, would be responsible."

"Mrs. Kamiya," T.K. finally managed to interject. "Nothing at all like what you're suggesting happened."

"Takeru, be quiet and get you're ass downstairs while we figure out what to do now."

T.K. conceded, nodding his head in agreement and following the two women down the stairs. All three of them were surprised, however, when the reached the second floor of the house, to find Kari's grandmother arguing furiously in her nightdress with three very familiar boys.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Grandma Kate screamed, throwing her hands in the air for emphasis. "I've never met any boy named T.K., and he's certainly not in my house."

Kari suppressed her laughter at the obscurity of the situation when Matt, Tai, and Davis realized that Kari, T.K., and her mother were standing just beyond the doorway.

"Tai!" Kari's mother shrieked, forgetting her fury with T.K. and Kari as she threw her arms around her son. Before Kari knew it, she was squeezed from behind as Davis lifted her into the air. He gave her a sloppy kiss on the cheek before T.K. pulled him off.

"Down Davis," T.K. joked, pretending to smack him with a rolled up newspaper. They all laughed until Matt grabbed T.K.'s arm and jerked him into the living room.

Several choice words were said between the two brothers before Grandma Kate interrupted, serving breakfast to all of her guests.

Over breakfast, some practical problems were discussed.

Grandma Kate surveyed the group of teenagers, deciding that she did not have room for all of them in her house.

"That's okay," Tai stated through a mouth full of scrambled eggs. "Matt rented a house for us and the rest of the band. It's only like two blocks away so our partying- I mean practicing, won't disturb you."

Matt shot him a glare that could easily compare to Kari's mother's when she found T.K. and Kari in bed together that morning. "We don't mean to offend you or anything," Matt said to Grandma Kate, "we just didn't want to impose."

"I suppose that's alright," Kari's mother said. "Are you in the band too Tai?"

"Nah," he said, "I thought about getting involved, but realized that I just couldn't fit it in to my busy schedule."

All of the kids at the table burst into laughter. "Yeah right," Davis said. "Tai couldn't sing a note if his life depended on it."

"Yeah," Matt agreed. "After we kicked him out of our practices he still kept following us around."

Tai opened his mouth to defend himself when a loud voice from the other room interrupted him.

"Kari!" Lynn shouted as she barged through the front door. "The Teenage Wolves are having a concert on Friday night, and guess who got tickets!"

She stepped into the kitchen and froze.

Kari laughed at the shock on her face. "Lynn, this is my brother Tai and my friend Davis. You've already met T.K., and this is his brother- "

"Yamato Ishida," she whispered, finishing for her.

Matt laughed, accustomed to the strange reactions people have around him. He stood up to shake her hand. "You can call me Matt."

Lynn blushed, a first in Kari's book. "I'm Lynn," she stammered. She was about to say more, when Grandma Kate seemingly pulled a chair out of nowhere for her and passed her a plate.

Soon everyone was laughing and catching up. Davis was telling Kari about how terrible life in Odaiba had become without her, and how he was forced to put up with Yolei's whining and T.K.'s complaining all of the time when T.K. placed a hand on her arm.

She looked at him expectantly and he signaled for her to follow him. Nobody noticed as they left the table for the privacy of the living room. She followed him to the couch where he sat down beside her.

"Kari, I need to ask you something," he began in such a serious tone that Kari suspected that something terrible had happened.

"You and Tai have a lot in common, but you have a much better voice than he does. Matt was kind of thinking that, if you wanted to, you might sing with us in the concert."

"Really?" Kari asked, flattered and a little curious.

"Yeah," T.K. said, relieved that she was interested. "It wouldn't have to be a solo or anything. Matt was hoping that we could do a duet together. He thinks that by having you sing with us we might get more guys interested in our music instead of crazy fan girls."

Kari laughed at their reasoning, but agreed to the offer. T.K. hugged her, thanking her repeatedly and explaining that he hoped Kari's decision to sing with them could serve as a peace offering to cool Matt's annoyance with him.

They reentered the kitchen to find all of the inhabitants staring, having already been informed of what T.K. was asking her.

Before Kari could tell them anything, Lynn said, "Kari, if you turn down this opportunity up, I will never forgive you."

"Well it's a good thing that I said yes," she said, laughing at her friend's forwardness.

Matt thanked her a million times more, and everyone was excited for Friday, though no one was as excited as Lynn. There were three long days before the concert, and three even longer nights, now that T.K. was staying with Matt in the house they rented.

The second night they threw a small party, which basically meant that it was the band, Tai, Davis, Lynn, Hannah, Tom, and Drew hanging out while T.K. and Kari made out in an upstairs bedroom.

Hannah and Tom left the party earlier that night, Tom not being much of a social person. And Drew left not long after, realizing that Lynn was going to be flirting with Matt the entire time instead of him, so it left Kari and Lynn to walk back to Kari's house.

"Hey Kari," Lynn said as they slowly walked down the dimly lit sidewalk.

"Yeah."

"Do you love T.K.?" she asked almost hesitantly.

"Yeah, I do."

"Okay."

"Why do you ask?" Kari implied.

"Because I wanted to tell you that you shouldn't sleep with him unless you're sure that you love him."

"Thanks mom," Kari said teasingly.

"No, I'm serious," Lynn said somberly. "I don't know what Hannah told you about what happened between me and Drew, but I did sleep with him."

Her voice was suddenly shaky, and Kari stopped walking, alarmed with seeing a weakness in her friend. Lynn was always the strong one, who always put her friends and family before herself. She never cried, and hardly ever showed much emotion. Heck, Kari had only seen her blush once.

"We were really good friends," Lynn continued, "and there was some drinking at the party, and I was a little buzzed. I'd always been attracted to him as more than a friend so when he started making moves on me, I guess I didn't exactly resist."

She sighed, "It ruined our friendship. He's still awkward around me, but I guess that's because he still wants to be more than friends with me. I know him well enough to know what a sucky boyfriend he is…" she drifted off.

"I don't know what I was thinking," she concluded. "I didn't really love him, and sleeping with him just led him to think that I did. So, don't sleep with T.K. unless you're sure that he loves you."

Kari was silent, processing all of this new information about her friend. She tried not to think about what might happen between her and T.K. if she slept with him, but she couldn't seem to stop thinking about it.

Eventually, the night of the concert arrived, and while she was nervous about many things she was completely decided about her relationship with T.K. She knew that she loved him, had always loved him, and even if they did end up sleeping with each other, she would not let anything come between them.


	11. Fusion

Never Far 

**Chapter 11- Fusion**

Kari took a deep breath, which was somewhat difficult in her formfitting outfit, however no one else seemed to mind that she couldn't breathe. T.K., for example, was too busy staring at her. He hadn't been able to pull his eyes away from her since she had finished getting ready. Currently, she was standing on the stage of the performance hall, in front of what seemed like millions of people.

Surprisingly, she wasn't as nervous as she thought that she would be. Sure the show had sold out, and practically the whole state of California was in the audience, including most of the people she knew. Kari felt as if all of her senses were shut down. The fans were screaming, but all Kari could hear was her own heartbeat. The lights were blinding her, but all she saw was T.K., who was standing beside her with his hand on the small of her back, daring anyone else to come close.

The music started, and the only thing she felt was T.K.'s voice as it surrounded her.

"The things we did, the things we said Keep coming back to me and make me smile again You showed me how to face the truth 

_Everything that's good in me, I owe to you."_ He sang.

Kari's moment came, and she smiled at T.K. and sang in response, "_Though the distance that's between us now_

_May seem to be too far,_

_It will never separate us_

_Deep inside, I know you are…"_

In perfect unison the reached the chorus, "_Never gone, never far_

_In my heart is where you are_

_Always close, everyday_

_Every step along the way_

_Even though for now we've got to say goodbye,_

_I know you will be forever in my life_

_Never gone."_

"_I walk alone these empty streets,_

_There is not a second you're not here with me."_

"_The love you gave, the grace you showed_

_Will always give me strength and be my cornerstone."_

"_Somehow you found a way _

_To see the best I have in me."_

"_As long as time goes on_

_I swear to you that you will be…"_

"_Never gone, never far_

_In my heart is where you are_

_Always close, everyday_

_Every step along the way_

_Even though for now we've got to say goodbye_

_I know you will be forever in my life"_

"_Never gone from me_

_If there's one thing I believe…"  
_

"_I will see you somewhere down the road again"_

The crowd was erupting with cheers and applause while the repeated the chorus twice more.

T.K. sang the final line with one arm draped over Kari and one arm gripping his microphone, "_Never gone, never far, in my heart is where you are…"_ He managed to give Kari a chaste kiss on the lips before Matt interrupted, pushing them apart.

The drummer tapped off the next song and Kari moved to the side of the stage to sing backup for the next few songs, which of course, were spectacular.

It had been their best show, and they all knew it, so the after party turned into a huge blowout with people Kari had never even seen before. She and T.K. struggled into the house, which was quite a difficult process because there were so many people partying inside that movement against the crowd was almost impossible. Lynn and Hannah pushed their was inside behind Kari and T.K. but were soon lost in the crowd.

Kari laughed as she and T.K. were separated when a guy who was dancing wildly burst between them. Letting the crowd move her along, Kari made her way past the crowded front rooms, hoping to find her friends. T.K. appeared beside her and gripped her hand tightly while glaring fiercely at the guy who was still dancing obliviously.

Finally, the stumbled into the slightly less crowded kitchen area, where Matt and Tai were sitting on the countertop, laughing hysterically at Davis' attempts to dance. Kari and T.K. were laughing as well until Tai fell off the counter and was rolling on the floor in his hysteria. Matt, T.K., and Davis laughed even harder, but Kari joined them reluctantly after noticing the pile of empty beer cans on the counter behind where Tai had been sitting.

Matt hopped off the counter, the alcohol causing him to wobble slightly. Davis offered Tai a hand and lifted him off the ground. Tai was so unstable though, that it took Matt's arm around him to right himself. Tai reached for another can of beer, but Kari took it away from him.

"I think that's enough for you two," she told them, trying to be the voice of reason.

Matt completely ignored her and popped open another can. "Kari, you need to relax. We're not completely irresponsible."

"Yeah," Tai added, "we're going home tomorrow, so we might as well have fun on our last night." He grabbed the can out of Matt's hand and took another drink.

Kari looked at T.K., who had failed to mention that he was leaving tomorrow. As in the next day. As in they only had a few hours together. He smiled apologetically at her and led her away from the crowds so they could talk.

Deciding that the party was far too out of control for them, they stumbled out the front door of the house into the cool night air of San Francisco. Walking slowly along the dark sidewalk, they chatted robotically about their brothers' stupidity and other random topics. Neither one wanted to mention, however, that they only had a few hours left together, though they were both thinking it.

"What time is your flight tomorrow?" Kari asked, finally bringing up the dreaded subject.

"I'm not sure. It just depends on what time Matt and Tai will be able to overcome their hangovers and drag themselves out of bed tomorrow."

Kari laughed. "Then you can expect it to be later."

T.K. laughed with her, but the depression of the upcoming departure was still hanging over them both. "So, what do you want to do now?" he asked.

"I don't know. I guess we could go back to my grandmother's house and watch a movie or something." They walked in the house, intending to just relax on the couch. When they opened the door however, a red blur flew down the hallway and attached itself to Kari.

"Kari!" Mikey shouted as he hugged her around the waist. "We watched the concert on T.V. and I thought you looked really beautiful."

"We both did," came a voice from the kitchen. Kari, T.K., and Mikey entered the kitchen to find her mother sharing a bottle of wine with Mr. Thompson.

"The show was wonderful," Mrs. Kamiya commented.

"Thanks, we're glad you enjoyed it."

"I'm sorry to intrude in your house, Kari," Mr. Thompson added, "but your mother and I were just catching up. We were trying to figure out what nights you might be able to baby-sit for me."

"Well," Kari said, "we'll put on a movie in the other room and leave you two alone." They shut the kitchen door just as the two adult returned to their previous conversation, which, Kari noticed, seemed to have nothing to do with babysitting.

"So you're Mikey," T.K. said, as he shook the younger boy's hand. "I've heard all about you."

"Really?" Mikey asked with wide eyes and adorable childish innocence. "Kari told me all about you too. You're T.K. and you have a brother named Matt who's best friends with her brother, Tai. Kari told me the story about how you saved her from the Scubamon."

"And I heard all about how you've been helping the older digi-destineds save the digital world."

Kari felt herself smiling at the new friends. The idolization in Mikey's eyes as T.K. spoke to him was almost too much for her. Although, she didn't interrupt them until Mikey started to tell T.K. of some of the more private things he had overheard Kari and Lynn talking about.

"So, why don't we watch a movie," Kari smiled, clamping a hand over Mikey's mouth and dragging him over to the couch. T.K. put the movie in and they sat down, he and Kari sitting on either sides of the younger boy. A half hour into the movie, however, and Mikey fell asleep with his head on Kari's lap and his legs draped over T.K.

Not too long after that Mr. Thompson determined that it was time for them to head home and he scooped Mikey off the couch and carried him out the door. Kari's mother was smiling to herself as she headed upstairs, leaving Kari and T.K. alone on the couch in the dark living room.

As soon as her mother was out of their sight, Kari grabbed T.K. by the shoulders and kissed him deeply. T.K. responded fervently until a loud cough from the hallway caused them to jump away from each other. Kari's grandmother stood beside the stairway giving the two teenagers a very disapproving look.

"Hi Grandma Kate," Kari said, plastering an innocent smile on her face. "Do you think it's all right if T.K. stays here tonight? You don't know how crazy one of Tai and Matt's parties can be. I'm surprised that you can't hear them from here."

"It's fine, as long as T.K. spends the night on the couch, and you spend the night upstairs in your room."

T.K. smiled at her request. "Thank you, I really appreciate it." The older woman only nodded sleepily and climbed the stairs to her own room.

Kari found some extra blankets and helped T.K. make up a comfortable bed on the couch. After they heard Kari's mother and grandmother's bedroom doors shut for the final time, Kari kissed T.K. once again. T.K. broke off the kiss much sooner than Kari had intended and pulled away from her.

"Not here," he whispered.

"All right. Do you want to go up to my room?"

"Kari, it wouldn't be right. I feel too guilty. Your mom and grandma are trusting us."

Kari sighed. "I guess you're right. I'll just go upstairs then…all alone…" She looked at him with big, pleading eyes, trying to change his mind.

He laughed at her, then threw a pillow in her direction. "Okay, I'm done," she said as she conceded. "I'll see you in the morning then."

He kissed her once more and then settled down underneath the blankets as she climbed the stairs to her bedroom. Although they were both thinking of the other, they surprising both fell asleep quite easily.

Kari awoke the next morning to a bright blue sky and birds chirping outside of her window. Dressed in extremely short pink shorts and a tight white tank top, she made her way through the amazingly quiet house.

She snuck past the living room, where T.K. was still sound asleep on the couch. The kitchen was spotlessly clean, which made the piece of paper on the counter stand out against the countertop. The note was to her, from her mother, stating that her mother and grandmother had gone shopping and wouldn't be back until the afternoon.

Kari read the letter and then read it again. Her grandmother and mother were going shopping together? What was going on here? This would be the first time that Kari had seen them do anything together. It was so exciting an occurrence that she ran into the living room to tell T.K., forgetting that he was still asleep.

She placed the letter down on the table beside the couch and watched the boy as he slept. He looked so peaceful that she didn't want to disturb him. But she didn't think that he would be too upset when she crawled under the blankets beside him.

When T.K. awoke with the barely clothed Kari in his arms, he decided that he wasn't going to let her go. She felt him stir as he woke up and turned so that they were facing each other. A second later, his mouth had claimed hers in a deep, passionate kiss.

Kari pressed her body against his, trying to get as close as she could to him and he tightened his embrace around her. He tried to push Kari onto her back, however, they ended up falling off the couch.

Kari screamed in surprise, but laughed when T.K. landed with a thud on his back and Kari sprawled on top of him. "Ow, that hurt," he moaned as Kari was still laughing at him.

She moved her knees to either sides of his waist so she was bending over him. Slowly, she kissed his neck and whispered, "Good thing I know how to make it all better." T.K. wrapped his arms around her middle and successfully managed to flip her onto her back. She sighed with contentment as he passionately kissed her mouth.

All of a sudden, there was a loud pounding on the front door.

"Don't answer it," T.K. whispered, placing light kisses along her collarbone.

"I have to. It could be important." At that moment, the phone started to ring as well.

"All right," T.K. moaned. "You get the phone and I'll answer the door, but if it's someone selling something then I'm kicking their ass."

She laughed and darted into the kitchen to grab the cordless phone off it's charger.

"Hello?"

"Good morning, Kari, it's Matt."

"Hi Matt. I'm surprised to hear from you this early. You do know it's only 10:30, right?"

"Yeah, look, I was just wondering if T.K. was there. We have an early flight out, so he needs to get over here and start packing."

"Okay, hold on, let me get him." Kari walked through the kitchen door just in time to witness T.K. throwing his fist into a tall man's face.

"T.K.! I thought you were just kidding! What do you think you're doing?" she screamed.

T.K. shook his hand, while the man at the door stood up, grabbing the banister in one hand and clutching his bleeding nose in the other. Kari gasped, dropping the phone as she stared in shock into the familiar face of her father.

-------------------------------------------------------------

"Never Gone"

Backstreet Boys

Never Gone 

Jive Records


	12. Disaster

Never Far 

**Chapter 12- Disaster**

The shock of seeing her father still hadn't receded as Kari rushed to the kitchen to grab some ice. She walked back into the hallway where her father gratefully accepted her aid. T.K. stood by the doorway, waiting for Kari to react. The phone lay on the floor between the three of them and Matt's extremely irritated voice was the only noise in the room.

"I'm sorry if I interrupted anything," Mr. Kamiya commented, glancing skeptically at the two teenagers' apparel.

"Actually, you did," T.K. snapped, rather coldly.

Kari was still staring at her father's, now bruised face. Slowly, she bent down and picked up the phone and turned it off. "T.K., you should go."

T.K. looked at her, almost in disbelief. "If that's what you want…"

She nodded in response. Then silently, she held open the front door for him. He quickly pulled on the clothes he had been wearing the night before, all under the watchful eye of Kari's father.

"Have a nice flight," Kari whispered as he walked through the doorway.

He smiled, kissed her cheek, and told her that, "This isn't finished." And he walked down the front steps, only stopping at the bottom to give her one last confident smile.

Kari stood in the doorway watching him, unable to return his optimism. All of the emotions and depression she had fought with a year ago upon leaving him were coming back to her.

Fighting away tears, she turned to face her father, who was still watching her. "Why are you here?" she asked him, though she secretly desperately wanted him to say that he was here because of her, or even to see the concert. Of course, she could have just assumed that _she_ would be the reason her father would fly to America, but she felt a need to ask. She needed to hear him confirm it.

Unfortunately, Mr. Kamiya missed his daughter's hidden motive and instead avoided her question. "Is your mother home? I really need to speak to her."

Kari shook her head "no," unable to hold back her tears any longer as she collapsed on the sofa. She should have known how terrible this day would become. No morning so perfect could have resulted in a similarly perfect day, things just had to get worse. She tried to look on the bright side, at least it couldn't get any worse than this, or so she naively thought.

"Look, Kari," her dad began, taking a seat in the armchair across from the couch. "I know I haven't been the world's greatest dad recently, but I want to give you some advice."

Kari snorted, but was feeling civilized enough to let him continue. "I know that you care a lot about Takeru, but he's just a boy. You're fifteen years old. You have plenty of time to meet other boys. And you live so far away, why don't you try meeting a boy here in California?"

"First of all, I'm seventeen. And second, T.K. loves me, which is something I'm not going to throw away just because we don't live near each other anymore," she retorted, stressing the word _anymore_.

Kari's anger swelled as he laughed at her. "I find it hard to believe that a seventeen-year-old, hormone driven teenager can have any understanding of love."

"And I should take your advise on this subject, because you're such an expert." Kari knew she was being cruel, but she was past the point of caring.

"I guess I've made some mistakes when it comes to love, but I'm here because I want to start over in that area."

He looked sincere, but Kari thought that he must have been kidding. "I hope you're not serious. You hurt mom emotionally in just about every way. But she's stronger now, _without you_, and there's no way in hell that she'll ever take you back."

He was surprised for a minute and then laughed once again. "Oh God no, I didn't mean your mother. No, it's definitely over for us. What I meant to tell you is that I'm engaged. Tara and I are getting married."

Kari felt her jaw drop, and it was several seconds before she closed it. "Congratulations," she told him earnestly, with just a hint of sarcasm. "I hope you'll be happy with your new family."

He was about to say more, when the front door opened and Kari's mother and grandmother entered the room. Kari's mother was the first to notice the two in the living room. She stared silently, her eyes wide and flickering between father and daughter. Grandma Kate stepped in behind her and, noticing Kari's father, headed into the kitchen where she called to them that she would be making coffee if they needed her.

Kari's mother stepped into the living room and sat down on the couch beside Kari. At the same moment, however, Kari stood up. Silently, she left her parents and went upstairs to change out of her nightclothes.

About five minutes later and two floors away, Kari could hear her mother's exclamations.

"You want me to sign what!" her mother shrieked. "You're getting married to a woman who is young enough to be your daughter?"

Kari left her room and headed back downstairs to the war zone. Her mother was still screaming. "You mean to tell me, that after no contact with your daughter in a year, you flew all this way, not to see her, but to tell her of your upcoming wedding? Were you even going to invite her?"

Kari entered the kitchen, took a Styrofoam of extremely strong coffee from her grandmother, slid on her sandals, and left through the back door. Heading down the street sipping her coffee, she hoped that T.K. and the rest of them hadn't left yet.

She arrived at the house the band had rented just in time to observe Tai and Davis dragging their suitcases across the sidewalk and into the trunk of a yellow taxi. "Hey! Wait!" she called, running to catch them before they left.

Tai turned around in time to catch his baby sister as she flung herself at him, her coffee forgotten as it hit the sidewalk and rolled into the street. "Where are the others?" she asked, looking around for T.K., Matt, and the rest of the band.

"They already left for the airport, which we should be doing right now so we don't miss our flight," Davis said loudly as he held open the door of the car.

"Tai, dad's here. He needs mom to sign some papers so he can get married."

"I know. Have you met her yet? Her name's Tara and she has an IQ about a point higher than the average boulder, and that's rounding up."

Kari laughed. "Don't worry about it," he told her. "Maybe mom'll let you come to Japan for the wedding and you can come visit me. I've been kind of living with Matt, and, yes, we do know how to behave ourselves." But he added a mischievous wink which made her a little bit suspicious about what _was_ going on there.

"All right, tell everyone back home that I said hi and that I miss them." She hugged her brother and Davis one last time and stood on the curb waving until the yellow cab rounded a corner and disappeared from her sight.

With one last sigh, she headed back towards her grandmother's home, as ready as she ever would be to handle her father. She entered through the front door just as her mother threw up her hands and hurried into the kitchen, leaving her very angry father alone in the living room.

"Kari, there you are," her father said, trying his best to sound concerned. "I wasn't done talking with you. I wanted to invite you to come stay with us next month before you start school. So you'll be able to visit all of your old friends and come to the wedding."

"I'll think about it," was all she could say before following her mother into the kitchen.

Grandma Kate and the former Mrs. Kamiya were sitting at the counter, silently drinking their coffee, both upset with Kari's father for various reasons. Mr. Kamiya followed Kari into the kitchen, attempting to persuade her to come to the wedding.

"There's going to be lots of food and pretty dresses. You have to meet Tara; after all, she's going to be your new stepmother. I think she would even like to ask you to play a part in the ceremony. And there's going to be lots of photographers. You still like photography, don't you?"

"I said, I'll think about it," Kari repeated, trying to refrain from the cruelty she had expressed earlier.

However, it seemed that her father wasn't even listening to her. He kept on describing all of the "wonderful" aspects of a wedding, and was almost to the point of bribery when Grandma Kate interrupted.

"Ami will sign your damn papers. You daughter, whom you haven't so much as written to in the last year, said that she will think about attending your wedding. Though if I were her, I wouldn't even have let you through the door. But she did, and now we've said all that needs to be said, so your welcome here has been officially worn out."

He stood in the kitchen doorway, staring openmouthed at his former mother-in-law's blunt demand for him to leave. "Do I have to show you to the door?" she asked, and Kari tried to stifle her laughter at her father's obvious shock and agitation.

Somehow, he managed to locate the door and successfully exit. Kari watched from the living room window as he climbed into his rental car and drove away down the street. Internally, she was exhausted, the tears that had been with her all day were beginning to fall once again. Despite how horrible he was and everything he had done wrong, she still loved him. She figured she couldn't help it. More than anything she wanted to feel the icy detachment that Grandma Kate had shown, but she didn't think it was possible.

As she stood at the window, staring blankly at the neighborhood, Kari's mother came and stood behind her, placing a comforting hand on her daughter's shoulder.

"It doesn't make you a bad person, you know," she told her daughter. "He's your father and you should care for him no matter what happens. Your affection towards him is what makes you such a great person."

Kari sighed, "It's just hard to love someone who won't love you back."

"I know that I'm supposed to say that he does love you, and that he just has a unique way of showing it, but I think, in this case, he just has his priorities mixed up. Even though he doesn't want children in his life right now, that does not mean that he doesn't love you. I don't know of any parent that could stop loving their child, especially when she's such a sweet kid like you."

Kari smiled, "Thanks, that kind of makes me feel better. But I'm still angry with him."

"I know, and you certainly have a right to be. You know, if you don't want to go to the wedding then you don't have to go."

"I know," she said, heading up the stairs to her room. "Thanks for being so understanding today."

"Well, what's family for anyways?"


	13. Speculation

**Never Far**

Chapter 13- Speculation 

A short while after her father had left, there was a soft knock on the door, which startled all three women who were sitting in the living room actually watching the same television show together without arguing. Kari opened the door much more slowly this time, cautious about whom she would let inside. She had nothing to fear, however, as it was only her best friends Lynn and Hannah standing in the doorway.

"We decided to reschedule our girls' night for tonight," Hannah explained as they stepped inside, baring the usual bags of junk food, pillows, and sleeping bags.

After they had arranged everything in Kari's room, Lynn commented on the irregularity of Kari's mother and grandmother actually agreeing on a television show.

"I guess we're all just a little shaken up right now," Kari admitted quietly.

"Was it because The Wolves and everyone left this morning?" Hannah asked sincerely.

"Well, yeah, I guess that's part of it. But mostly it's because of my father." She then went on to explain everything that had happened after his arrival and the things he had said to her and her mother.

"Kari that's terrible," Lynn said, not really able to relate as their parents were happily married.

"So are you going to go to the wedding?"

"I really don't know. I should, but I'm so mad at him. I want to go home and see everyone and everything, but I don't know if I can take it."

"Well, that's understandable. At least you have a few weeks to decide."

"Yeah, I guess. But can you guys do me a favor and just not talk about my family anymore."

"That sounds like a good idea," Hannah and Lynn nodded in agreement.

"So Lynn," Kari changed the topic, "did you get to say goodbye to Matt this morning or did you talk to him at the party last night?"

Lynn made a disgusted face, "I tried talking to him last night, but he was completely wasted, not to mention the fact that it was impossible to keep his attention with Tai hanging on him the whole time."

"It was kind of cute," Hannah added. "Whenever Lynn tried to talk to Matt, Tai started acting like he was jealous or something."

"I'm sorry, Lynn. I should have warned you," Kari apologized. "Those two act like an old married couple sometimes."

Lynn shrugged. "Your warning's a little too late. I've already given up on Matt. I think that he would rather be with Tai, but I honestly didn't mean that as an insult."

"I know what you meant," Kari concurred, "those two would be an adorable couple." The twins laughed at the idea, but agreed with Kari.

The rest of the night unfolded with the same, with gossip and giggling, which was extremely comforting to Kari after her eventful morning.

Though Kari tried not to think about it, in just a few short weeks the summer flew by. One afternoon during her last week of summer vacation, she was sitting on the porch of her grandmother's house, taking a break after dragging her mail up the front stairs.

Ever since Kari's performance in the Teenage Wolves concert, she had been receiving an unbelievable amount of fan mail. Most of it, however, was tremendously unpleasant. It seems that almost every teenage girl felt it was their duty to send Kari letters about how she wasn't good enough to be with T.K.

The first few that had been sent to her had really hurt. She couldn't understand how girls could be so cruel, but after they started arriving in huge mail bags, she started dumping them straight into the trash can. But then that started becoming a difficult process as well. Most of the mail to her mother and grandmother was mixed in with all of the fan mail, so everyday she had to sit at the top of the stairs and sort it all into three piles.

The first was the crazy fan mail that was headed straight for the garbage, the second was for all of the American colleges that had somehow gotten her name and address and had been sending her brochures and post cards. The third was for the mail for her mother and Grandma Kate.

When she was finished, she gathered Pile Number One and immediately threw it into the garbage can. Afterwards, she headed back up the stairs and noticed a thin envelope that had somehow escaped her careful filing system.

Picking it up, she saw that it was addressed to her and had a Tokyo postage stamp. Inside there was a short note and another envelope.

The note was from her father, informing her that the wedding was planned for this Saturday, and Tara absolutely needed her to be there. Inside the envelope was one plane ticket. She checked the date and the flight wasn't scheduled for a few days, so she would be in Japan to help her future stepmother with most of the preparations.

Though it had been several weeks, Kari was still unsure of whether or not she should attend. In all honesty, the only reason Kari wanted to go was to see her friends. She believed that the negative aspects of the wedding outweighed the prospect of spending time with her friends.

When she told her mother and grandmother about her dilemma, she expected them to agree with her when she said that she didn't think she wanted to go. So, she was absolutely shocked when they both told her that she should.

"It doesn't matter what terrible things he's done," Grandma Kate told her, "he's still your father, and you have to at least respect him for that."

Kari's mother was mostly silent through her grandmother's lectures, but when Kari asked her what she thought, she told her that, "You can't avoid the fact that he's getting married. You're acting like a little girl who's afraid of changing and refuses to even meet her new stepmother. You have a real problem here, Kari, but staying in California won't solve anything."

"And Kari," Grandma Kate added, "I hope that you're responsible enough to know when you have to grow up. And also that if you don't get upstairs and pack, we'll do it for you."

Not knowing any sensible way to reply, Kari headed upstairs to start packing.

Instead of getting started right away, she sat down on her bed and thought about everything her mother and grandmother had said. She guessed that they had a point. Was she really afraid to accept the changes?

Besides, she had a dress, shoes, a date (hopefully), and friends and family. Now that she rethought the situation, she couldn't see any reason why she had doubted herself before. Heck, this might even be fun.

A few days later, she was fully packed, dressed in her favorite jeans and zip up hoodie and standing in front of airport security, kissing her mother and grandmother goodbye.

After that, Kari endured an extremely long and extremely boring flight before stepping off the plane into the warm Japanese air. Despite everything she had been worried about earlier, she felt a sense of relief with the feeling of being home.

She had e-mailed her father, T.K., and Tai to tell them that she would be coming back into town for the wedding. After she went through security once more and picked up her suitcase, she headed down one more escalator to the exit.

Expecting only Tai or maybe her father to be waiting for her, she was incredibly surprised when she turned the corner to see not only Tai and Matt, but also T.K., Yolei, Davis, Ken, Cody, Sora, Izzy, and even Joe standing next to the doors. Kari ran towards them, which was quite difficult as she had to drag her suitcase along behind her.

Davis was the first to reach her, and he hugged her tightly, lifting her into the air. He was about to kiss her when Yolei punched his arm. "It's my turn to hug Kari, Davis!" she scolded him and then turned on Kari. There was much screaming, hugging, and crying on Yolei's part as she was reunited with her best fried, but she soon moved away so that Kari could greet the others.

It was one of the happiest moments of Kari's life. Never before had most of the people that she loved done so much just to show her that they loved and missed her.

After many odd looks, and a security guard who was about to literally kick them out, they decided that it was time to go. T.K. linked arms with her and, as a giant mob, the digi-destineds headed to the parking lot where they piled into Mr. Ishida's van.

For some strange and incredibly stupid reason, Matt let Tai drive, so they reached Matt and Tai's apartment in less than ten minutes, even with rush hour traffic. Once they arrived there, Kari was even more surprised to find the big celebration that they had planned for her. There was a "Welcome Home" banner hanging from the ceiling, a beautiful cake, and food and drinks set up for a party.

Kari stayed with them for a little while, enjoying the time with her friends, but it wasn't too long before the jetlag began to affect her exhaustion set in. Although Davis had all but begged Kari to let him walk home with her, of course, it was T.K. who escorted her.

After they exited the apartment building, they walked silently for a while, enjoying each other's company. Before too long, T.K. broke the silence.

"Good to be home?"

She nodded in agreement, smiling up at him.

"So do you have plans for tomorrow?" he asked her, almost shyly.

"I don't know. I haven't even talked to my dad since that day in California." They had reached the front doors of Kari's old apartment, where her father still resided. "I'll call you tomorrow if I'm free."

"Okay," he whispered, his body moving closer and closer to hers, until their lips met. As tired as Kari was, she responded to his needy kisses with equal vehemence. Kari had her back pressed against the wall of the apartment building as he moved even closer towards her.

Kari was half asleep, but was still enjoying his company. He kissed her neck, sucking on her skin and licking all of her sensitive spots. He only stopped when she closed her eyes and subconsciously moaned seductively.

"Do you want to go somewhere else?" he asked her, his voice low and his lips still caressing her neck.

She smiled, and gently pushed him away. "T.K., not tonight. I'm so tired, I'm fighting to keep my eyes open."

"Alright," he sighed, obviously disappointed. "But I'm still going to go up with you."

"Good," she said, taking his hand in hers and pushing open the front door. They took the stairs up the four flights and T.K. walked with her all the way to the front door of the apartment. He kissed her one last time and then turned back towards the stairs. He had decided that he would be better off not interfering with her reunion with her father.

Kari watched him leave, though she was still fighting off sleep. Then she turned to the doorway that she had walked through a billion times before. The door that she had leaned against when Tai was at soccer practice and she had lost her key. The very same door that walked through carrying all of her clothes in big cardboard boxes…

Kari realized that she had to be really exhausted if she was standing in the hallway contemplating a door. She raised her hand to knock, but hesitated, though she didn't understand why. This was her home, the place she had been longing to return to for over a year, and now she couldn't understand why she was nervous to enter.

Yawning, she realized that her thoughts were beyond the point of making sense. So she knocked loudly and confidently, and was blinking back sleep, when the door opened in front of her.


	14. Attachment

**Never Far**

Chapter 14- Attachment 

The door flew open in front of Kari and the first thing she saw was a huge mass of blonde hair, which she assumed belonged to Tara. She wasn't able to see much else as the living hair completely engulfed her in a hug that was tighter than the one Davis had given her.

"Kari! I'm so glad you came! I've been just dying to meet you!" she shrieked.

She thankfully released Kari, settling on squeezing her future stepdaughter's hand as she led her inside the apartment.

After Kari had made sure that she could still breathe, she took another look at the woman her father was marrying. Besides the enormous hair, Kari noticed that her makeup was too dark and too thick, her lipstick too bright a shade for her complexion, her boobs way too big to be natural, and her dress just screamed "slut." Besides all of that, Kari could see that she was pretty, in a superficial sort of way, but she could understand her father's attraction.

"You must be so tired," Tara exclaimed in a somewhat lower volume. "But you should eat something first. Are you hungry?"

Kari wanted to hate her. Everything that she had heard about Tara made her want to hate her. Kari thought that it would have been so easy to do. Now that she was standing in the kitchen with her, Kari found that hating her probably wouldn't come so easily. Kari may not have been the greatest judge of character, but Tara seemed sincere. She could have been faking it, but Kari had some difficulty believing that.

She sat down at the kitchen table and a second later her father entered the kitchen. Tara began pulling pans of food out of the refrigerator and bringing them over to the table where her father pulled out a chair and sat down beside her.

"We didn't know what time you'd be coming by," her father explained, "so we ate dinner earlier, but Tara saved some for you."

"Thank you," Kari managed to say, still struggling to stay awake.

"We haven't touched anything in your room since you left," her father added. "Why don't you check it out while Tara gets everything ready?"

Sleepily, Kari left the kitchen and made the familiar path down the hallway to her old bedroom, dragging her suitcase slowly behind her. Without even thinking about the meal Tara was preparing, she pulled back the comforter of her old bed, climbed under the sheets, and a second later she was fast asleep.

Around one o'clock in the morning, however, she could not fall back asleep. She had no idea what time it was in San Francisco, but she was awake as if it was the middle of the day.

She sat for a while in her bed, staring at the familiar ceiling. Her father hadn't lied, her room was exactly the same, minus the items she had taken. Her computer sat in the corner beside the balcony door, but the picture frames that had once surrounded it were gone. The walls were still painted the same shade of light pink, but there were funny looking dark shapes on the wall where her posters used to be. Her closet was empty except for a few items that she had thought would be better off forgotten.

Feeling a little hungry, she climbed out of bed and silently left her room. All of the lights in the apartment were turned off so she moved around as quietly as she could. All of the food Tara had prepared for her earlier must have been replaced in the refrigerator because the kitchen was currently spotless.

It was so different from when her mother had lived here. Then there had always been a stack of dirty dishes in the sink and leftovers sitting out on the counter. She opened the fridge and sighed. The food in the refrigerator was organized and all entirely fresh. There was even a small box of baking soda.

She grabbed the milk and set it on the countertop. Then she opened the cupboard to grab a bowl, but she was almost completely surprised when she found cups instead. It took her several minutes before she actually located them. Her mother hadn't taken any of the dishes so she wondered why her father had rearranged everything.

She realized the answer to her question just minutes later. After finding a bowl, she poured herself some milk and cereal and had just sat down at the kitchen table when she heard a noise from the other room.

She froze for a second, hoping that she hadn't woken anybody up in her search of a bowl.

Then she heard it again. For a minute she was unsure of what was going on, but when she realized what it was and where it was coming from, she cringed in disgust. The "noise" was a high-pitched moaning and panting coming from her father's room.

When she heard it a third time, she had her shoes on and was out the door a second later. What was her father thinking? How could they be having loud sex when she was supposed to be sleeping in the next room?

Extremely ticked off, she was at the door to Matt and Tai's apartment in less than two minutes. She knocked somewhat loudly, hoping that she wasn't waking them up either.

Kari didn't have to wait very long for them to answer the door, but when it did open, her mouth fell open in shock. Matt was standing in the doorway completely naked except for a bright red cowboy hat, high heeled cowboy boots, and a matching red leather thong. He held the door open with one hand and gripped a can of whipped cream in the other.

Kari stared for a second. "I would be so rich if I had a camera right now."

Matt rolled his eyes, but let her inside.

"T.K.'s in the back bedroom. Try not to be too loud or Tai'll kill you guys." He picked something up off of the living room table and tossed it to her. She caught it in the air and realized that it was a condom. She tried to protest, but he wasn't listening.

"And for the record, I didn't give you that. You know, just incase it ever gets back to Tai." And before she could say anything else, he disappeared through the kitchen door.

She was about to follow him into the kitchen when she realized that Matt hadn't closed the door all of the way. It was open just enough for her to see Tai lying on the kitchen floor, in a costume similar to Matt's, except without the thong.

"Oh my God," she cried, shielding her eyes and turning away. "Is everyone in Odaiba having sex tonight?"

"Not everyone," said T.K. from the hallway behind her. He moved closer and wrapped his arms around her from behind.

"Not yet, anyways," she said, quickly putting the condom in her pocket, thinking that leaving it around might only give their brothers ideas later. She turned around to kiss him when they heard a noise from the kitchen that stopped them in their tracks. He grabbed her hand and led her into the other room.

She sat down on his bed and covered her face with her hands, "It's going to take me years to get that picture out of my head."

He laughed at her. "I wouldn't say years. It'll probably be a few decades at least."

She laughed too, and hit his arm playfully as he sat down beside her.

"So, what are you doing here in the middle of the night? I mean, except to see me of course," he asked her.

"For your information, I didn't even know that you would be here. I came to get away from my dad's apartment. Let's just say that Tara's a screamer."

He nodded in understanding. "Oh, Kari, that's terrible."

"Yeah, well, now I know what it's like to be homeless."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I've never been able to consider my grandmother's house my home. Home was always here in Japan and I couldn't wait to go back to my dad's apartment, because it would be like going home. But then tonight I guess I just realized that it's not my home anymore. It's Tara's home. I think she lives there with him."

"So now do you want us to pick you out a cardboard box?" T.K. joked.

"T.K. that's not funny!" and she hit his arm again.

"Kari, you're not homeless. If you look at it the other way, you have a lot of homes. Your grandmother's house is a home, your father loves you and if you get to know Tara, you could consider that another home, just not _the _home. And you're always welcome here, even though I don't know why anybody would want to live with our brothers."

"Yeah, I was going to ask you sooner, what are you doing here? You're not living here are you?"

"Oh geez no. I'm pretty tolerate, but I don't think I could take being here all the time. I'm just staying here for a few days while my mom's out of town. She worries if I stay home alone."

She laid down in his bed and he slid down beside her before pulling a blanket over the two of them.

"Are you still tired," he asked her. "Or did Tara keep you up?"

"No, I'm fine now, but I don't think getting sleep would be any easier here."

"Tai and Matt are usually pretty quiet, usually being the key word."

"So, how long have they been together?"

"I don't know. I think since we got back from San Francisco. But I don't want to talk about them."

He leaned in and kissed her instead, and Kari completely agreed with his change of topic. They had just deepened their kiss however, when they heard Matt and Tai move from the kitchen to the bedroom.

When Matt screamed something that made Kari blush and T.K. shake his head in frustration, they decided that it was time to leave.

Even though it was almost two o'clock in the morning, they walked hand-in-hand down the deserted sidewalks to T.K.'s apartment building. His apartment was dark as they entered, but they didn't bother to turn on any of the lights.

They sat down on T.K.'s couch before Kari asked him where exactly his mom was.

"She's in Hong Kong working on a story or something like that."

"I bet she's having sex tonight too."

"Kari! No! Bad mental pictures!" he screamed.

Kari wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him in for a deep kiss. T.K. soon forgot all of his disturbing thoughts about his family as he responded to Kari's passion. He pushed her down into the cushions and she opened her mouth wider so he could slide his tongue inside.

She moved her hands from the back of his neck to entangle them in his hair. T.K. slipped his hands under her shirt, sliding the palms of his hands along her back. Then he moved his hands lower so that they brushed across her back pocket.

"Kari, what's in your pocket?" he asked, breaking their contact as he sat up.

She laughed at his question, but let him slip his hand in her pocket to pull it out. "Your brother gave it to me, but I'm not supposed to say that it's from him incase it gets back to Tai."

T.K. was still a little shocked. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Those two are worse than bunnies."

Kari was still lying back on the couch and was about to pull him back down to her when he asked in all seriousness, "Do you want to use it?"

Kari sat up on the couch beside him while she thought about his question. It was a good question. They were all alone in his dark apartment on a hot summer night. It wasn't exactly how she had dreamed it would happen, but when she looked up at him, she knew it was right. He was sitting on the couch in the moonlight, patiently waiting for her answer.

She leaned closer to him and kissed him slowly and seductively. Then she leaned over to his ear and whispered, "Okay."


	15. Affection

**Never Far**

Chapter 15- Affection 

Kari grabbed T.K.'s hands and pulled him off the couch and down the hallway to his bedroom. She let herself inside while he followed cautiously. The room was as dark as the rest of the apartment, but his windows were open, letting in enough moonlight so that they could see each other through the darkness.

T.K. shut the door gently and then hesitated, somewhat unsure about what he should do next. He turned to face Kari, but only watched as she pulled off her T-shirt and stepped out of her shorts.

She moved towards him, now wearing only her pink bra and matching lacy underwear. He wrapped his arms around her waist and brought her closer to him as he kissed her. He had to let go of her, however, when she tugged his shirt over his head and tossed it to the floor.

Kari was a little nervous that she was moving too fast for him. The apprehensive look on his face only encouraged her worry. Thinking that she should lighten the mood, she moved over to T.K.'s bed where she intended to strike some silly, yet still sexy pose for him.

That didn't work out as she had planned, as she took one step toward the bed and tripped on her own clothes, falling flat on her face.

T.K. was at her side a second later, scooping her into his arms. "Are you okay?" he asked, more than a little concerned.

"I'm fine," she told him, as he laid her down on his bed. "I might need you to kiss me and make it better though."

He eagerly complied, kissing her fiercely as he laid her down onto the mattress. She ran her hands along his chest, letting his do the same to hers. His lips strayed from her mouth down to her neck where he sucked on her skin, no doubt leaving a mark.

Kari didn't stop him as his hands reached her bra strap and he easily unclasped it. Sitting up slightly he soon tossed her bra into the pile their clothes had made on the floor. She wrapped her arms around him, pulling him down to her. He kissed her once again, pressing their now naked upper bodies together, enjoying the sensations of their skin touching.

She relaxed her grip on him slightly as his hands moved to fondle her exposed breasts. He cupped and squeezed her, but then quickly replaced his hands with his mouth. He moved his mouth over her skin, using his lips and tongue to make her moan in pleasure. Moving his mouth lower, his lips brushed her stomach and the area below that. He stopped when he reached the top of her underwear.

Raising himself slightly above her, he hesitated a moment, staring at her beautiful almost naked body in the moonlight. She looked like a goddess with her hair spread out around her face and her perfect milky breasts almost glowing in the darkness. Her eyes were half closed, watching him in a sexy way that told him she didn't want him to stop. He slid his hands along her hips and underneath the sides of her panties before he pulled them down over her slender legs.

After tossing her panties on the floor as well, he ran his hands along the smooth skin of her calves and thighs. He touched the insides of her thighs and she opened her legs to him. She was breathing heavily as he touched her, but she gasped when he slid a finger inside her.

He fingered her until she was panting, but when he pulled out of her, she sat up, ready to return the favor. Noticing that his shorts were now far too tight on him, she unbuttoned them slowly, pulling them off his body along with his boxers. When he was as unclothed as she was, she grasped his already tremendous erection in her hands. He moaned in ecstasy as she stroked and fondled him, heightening his arousal.

She would have done more but he stopped her. "Kari, wait," he murmured though he was breathing just as heavy as she was.

"What is it?" she asked, alarmed that he had wanted to stop and worried that she might have done something wrong.

"What happened to that condom?"

She laughed in relief then climbed out of his bed, to look for it. She found it quickly under the pile of their clothes and ripped open the wrapper. Coming back over to the bed, she helped him slip it on and then lowered herself back onto the bed beneath him.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" he asked her. "We don't have to if you don't want to."

He was so adorable at that moment. The fact that he was so concerned about her made her love him even more. He was about to say something else when she cut him off with a kiss. "Don't make me wait any longer," she told him, lying back down and spreading her legs wider.

He positioned himself on top of her, shifting his weight so he wouldn't hurt her. He looked into her eyes for one last confirmation, and she gave it to him, nodding in response to his unvoiced question. Then, in one swift movement, he pushed himself inside her.

She moaned, somewhere between pain and pleasure. She arched her back underneath him, pushing him further inside of her. There wasn't as much pain as she had expected and it lessened as he thrust into her. Moving their hips together, it wasn't long before they climaxed in unison. When that time came they both cried out in satisfaction before collapsing against each other.

T.K. lay next to her for a few minutes, catching his breath before got up to dispose of the condom. When he returned to Kari, however, she was fast asleep. Without bothering to put any of his clothes back on, he stepped over the pile and climbed into bed beside her. She didn't stir as he wrapped his arms around her and fell asleep holding her.

Kari awoke several hours later. The sun was shining through the open window, though she knew that it was still early morning. Her first thoughts were trying to figure out where she was, but that only lasted several milliseconds before the memories of the night before came back to her.

She didn't regret anything that they had done, though that might be surprising to some. Sure, the night hadn't gone as perfectly as she had intended, but she still had no regrets. It was the only future that she was worried about.

She repositioned herself, careful not to wake him, but enough to give her a clear view of his face. He looked so peaceful and innocent while he was sleeping. Almost like an angel with his golden hair falling into his closed eyes and sculpting his perfect face. Kari had found the rest of his body to be just as magnificent. She had a clear view of that as well, since they seemed to have pushed all of his blankets onto the floor during the night and were now only partially covered by a thin sheet entwined around their legs.

Things were going to be different now, Kari thought. How could they not be? They had were now as close as any two people can ever be and in only a few short days she would have to leave for California again. Just the idea of having to say goodbye to him was killing her already.

She would have spent the entire morning sulking if T.K. had not woken up just then, flashing her one of his brilliant smiles. The same of smile that tended to make her feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

"Good morning," he yawned, stretching his arms above his head and giving Kari an opportunity she could not pass. He wasn't even suspecting as she rolled on top of him, straddling his waist and tickling his stomach unrelentingly.

He screamed and writhed beneath her but she didn't stop until they ended up on the floor beside the bed. T.K. hit the floor on his back and Kari sprawled on top of him.

"Ow, that hurt," he whined.

"I suddenly just got an extreme case of déjà vu…except with less clothes," Kari said, remembering their make out session on her grandmother's couch in California the morning before he had left.

"Then that's why this time was better," he teased, and she rolled off him, laughing at his disappointment.

He leaned in to kiss her lips when his phone started to ring.

"Why does this always happen to us?" he groaned, pulling on his boxers before running down the hallway to answer it.

Kari laughed at him while she pulled on her own clothes. She then followed him into the kitchen where she found him leaning against the counter, rolling his eyes at the phone.

"It's Matt," he mouthed to her when he saw her approaching him.

"I should go," Kari told him softly as she pulled on her tennis shoes.

"No, wait," he called after her, hanging up on his brother. "Well, I guess you probably should. Matt called to say that Tara's looking for you and Tai's freaking out."

"Yeah, I'm not surprised. My dad told Tara that I would help her out today. So I'll see you later?"

"If you're not too busy with wedding preparations."

She smiled and rolled her eyes. "God, I hope not."

He kissed her cheek and told her that he'd definitely see her later.

Kari knew that he was watching her as she walked down the hallway, but she restrained herself from turning back around. As soon as the elevator doors shut and she was out of his view, she collapsed on the floor. Holding her head in her hands, she let her tears fall freely.

Why did he have to be so perfect? It would be so much easier if she hated him, if she could hate what they had done together.

The elevator stopped at another floor so she pulled herself up off the floor before a middle aged couple entered with their two little kids. She wiped her eyes and avoided eye contact. There was still time before she had to leave for America. There was still time for her to be with T.K. before they had to go through all of that pain again.

After Kari called Tai to reassure him that she was safe, the first thing she wanted to do was shower and change into fresh clothes. Of course, her bad luck interfered once again and Tara immediately dragged her into the bathroom that had once belonged to her parents. Kari stared at all of the hair products spread over the entire bathroom counter and surrounding the sink. She hadn't even known that so many products existed.

"Kari, I'm having a major crisis!" she cried, sitting down on the toilet, looking like she was actually going to cry. "The woman at my hairdresser's salon called this morning to tell me that he's eloping this weekend in Hawaii! How could he! What was he thinking? It's too late for me to schedule an appointment anywhere else, and I'm getting married tomorrow! I can't just let anybody do my hair!"

Kari couldn't believe that she was obsessing over her hair. She had always known girls who did that, but she had never really understood them. Trying to be understanding, Kari rubbed her back and did her best to calm her down.

"Well, what if you do something else with your hair?" Kari asked, trying to come up with a rational solution. "I'll bet your hair would look fabulous down. And you could curl the ends. I could help you if you want."

She looked up at Kari with her eyes puffy from crying. Then she unexpectedly threw her arms around Kari and hugged her tightly. "Oh Kari, you are so cool. I can already tell we're going to be best friends!"

"Well," Kari added somewhat sarcastically, "we're close enough in age to be sisters."

Tara laughed. "That's so sweet of you. But I really don't think so. I'm twenty-five. That's more than ten years older than you."

Kari didn't laugh. "Actually, I'm seventeen. So you're only eight years older than me, and five years older than Tai."

Tara thought for a moment. "Hmm. I guess you're right. I thought you were younger."

Just then, the doorbell rang and Tara jumped out of the bathroom to answer it, her hair depression forgotten. Kari followed slowly, as she heard squealing and screaming at the front door. A second later, Tara entered the living room with another woman who was just as young and just as blonde as her future stepmother.

"Kari, this is my best friend Miya. She's here to help set up for my bachelorette party," Tara explained.

"Your what party?" Kari asked.

"My bachelorette party. It's an American tradition for the bride to have one last night of fun and partying with her friends before she gets married."

"Oh, so are you having it here tonight?"

"Yep," Tara beamed. "The rest of my friends will be here in a few hours. So the three of us are going to decorate, make some yummy snacks, and prepare the drinks!"

She was so excited that Kari wanted to throw up. Tara reminded her a lot of Mimi. At first, she appeared to be a complete bimbo, but then she turned out to be one of those girls who were actually somewhat sensible, but just in the cosmetics, fashion, and hair care products sort of way.

Still, Kari rolled her eyes and tried to help her, thinking the entire time that her father was an idiot.

Just as Tara had predicted, her friends arrived only a few hours later. When guests started making themselves at home, Kari approached Tara and told her that it was all right if she wanted Kari to leave.

"Of course not Kari," was her unfortunate reply. "You're family now, and we're friends, remember?"

So Kari nodded, and sat down on the couch next to some other bimbos and tried to forget that she could be having fun with her own friends.

Needless to say, Kari learned a lot about bachelorette parties. It seems that one of the traditions is for all of the women to bring gifts for the future bride. Kari thought at first that this was a pretty nice tradition, and willingly sat beside Tara as she opened these gifts.

Then Kari became extremely uncomfortable when she realized that all of the gifts were some form of sex toy or lingerie. Trying desperately not to think of Tara and her father in that way, Kari was extremely relieved when the phone rang.

She jumped out of her chair, shouting almost joyfully, "I'll get it!"

The women in the living might have been giving her funny looks, but she ran to the kitchen and caught it on the second ring.

When T.K. greeted her, she almost cried.

"Thank God you called!" she whispered into the phone, though it wasn't as if anyone in the next room could hear her over their exclamations about each gift. "This is a nightmare!"

"What is?" he asked.

"Tara! She's like Mimi on steroids. And guess what. She's having her 'bachelorette party' tonight."

"Well, that doesn't sound too bad," he said, trying to calm her down.

"No, it's bad. I figured out how bad when all of her gifts turned out to be stuff like crotchless panties and flavored lubricant."

She expected him to keep trying to calm her down, but he just laughed hysterically at her misfortune.

"This isn't funny, T.K.," she was about to lecture him when the doorbell rang. Ticked off that he wouldn't take this situation seriously, she answered the door.

Kari could only stare at the man in her doorway. He was wearing very tight leather pants and a shirt that was see-through.

He smiled at her and winked. "I'm looking for Tara, is she here?" he asked in a very deep voice.

Before Kari could say anything, Miya pushed Kari aside and escorted the man into the living room. Kari's eyes widened as she heard Miya call out, "The stripper's here!"

"T.K.," she said slowly into the phone, trying to remain calm. "There is a male stripper in my living room."

He laughed again. "Is that good thing or a bad thing?"

"T.K., I'm being serious! This is beyond bad! I don't know what to do, she's not even part of my family yet and I've already had enough of her."

"Just relax, stay out of your living room for a while, at least until you hear the stripper leave. Then all you can do is go back and do a lot of smiling and nodding until her friends leave."

Kari sighed. "I guess you're right. I just have a hard time being reasonable right now."

"Do you want me to come over?"

"T.K., I'm pretty sure this is a 'no men allowed' party, well, except for the stripper."

"Yeah, I know. I meant do you want me to come over later, as in after all Tara's guests leave…"

She laughed at him. "How about I see you tomorrow at the wedding?"

"Okay. Call me, it doesn't matter what time. I'm still at Tai and Matt's. Do you have the number there?"

He gave it to her, and then they said a short goodbye and Kari placed the cordless phone back onto its charger. She decided to take T.K.'s advice and wait for the stripper to leave, so she helped herself to a piece of cake, ignoring the very disturbing inscription in the red frosting.

Sitting on the countertop with her plate of cake, she could hear the "stripper music" still playing in the living room. For this reason, she was very surprised when Tara entered the kitchen.

Kari's first instinct was to jump off the counter, probably because she had been scolded so many times in her childhood for sitting on that very countertop. Taking a seat at the table, Tara sat down across from her.

"I'm sorry about the stripper. I really didn't know he was coming."

Kari nodded before she kept going. "I think it would be a good idea if we didn't tell your father about this. You can come back out there if you want, I think you're old enough."

"No thank you," Kari said gently. "That's not my kind of thing."

"Okay, but I just wanted to let you know that your dad won't be coming back tonight, and since it'll probably be early tomorrow morning when my girlfriends leave, it's okay if you'd rather spend the night somewhere else."

"Thanks, Tara," Kari stated, truly appreciative. "I promise I'll be back early tomorrow."

"Yeah, don't forget our hair appointment!"

Then Tara headed back into the living room, and Kari fled the apartment almost as quickly as she had left the night before. Though Kari had intended to go find T.K., she instinctively headed towards Yolei's house instead.


	16. Complications

Never Far 

**Chapter 15- Complications**

Kari found that spending time with Yolei was much different from her girls' nights with Lynn and Hannah. She could never compare her three best girl friends to one another, but it was such a relaxation for Kari to remember all of their old adventures with someone who had actually been there alongside her.

They were sitting on Yolei's bed with a movie playing in the background while Kari flipped through a Japanese magazine and Yolei braided her hair. Much like her time with Lynn and Hannah, they were almost constantly laughing about the hilarious events in their past.

"You remember when Davis couldn't spell T.K.'s name?" Yolei remembered, and Kari nodded laughing uncontrollably has they recalled all of the letter combinations Davis had concocted in his attempts to annoy T.K.

Kari sighed. "Yolei, I really missed being able to talk to you."

"Well, you could have written me every once in a while…"

"I'm sorry Yolei. I truly meant to, but I was busy. Did I tell you about the American digi-destineds that Gatomon and I have been helping about?"

"Yes you did, and don't try to change the subject! I know that you were writing to T.K. and not the rest of us, though I can understand why you didn't want to keep in touch with Davis."

Yolei laughed, "But I guess I can't blame you for writing to T.K. He's changed a lot since you left, but definitely not in a bad way." She winked suggestively at Kari.

Kari rolled her eyes at her, but Yolei only went on, "Oh come on, I know you've noticed. Don't tell me you haven't been checking him out?"

"Yolei," Kari said seriously. "I guess I should tell you that T.K. and I have been 'together' for over a year now."

Yolei laughed. "Kari, please. Do you think I'm an idiot? Even Davis knows that."

"I didn't realize we were so obvious."

"We're your friends, of course we noticed. And everybody else should to since the whole country watched you kiss when they broadcasted the Teenage Wolves concert here in Japan."

Kari blushed, forgetting that small detail momentarily.

"Believe me, the rest of the world remembers that too," Kari told Yolei. "I've been getting hate mail from the Takeru fan club ever since."

Yolei laughed so hard she snorted.

"Yolei, it's not that funny. I can't understand why people would send me such mean messages just for being with him."

"Oh, Kari," Yolei sighed. "You know they're just jealous of you. Those girls are insane; they'd attack a girl for being in the same room with T.K. You're lucky that's the worst they've done to you after they saw you kiss him."

"Yeah, I guess…" Kari sighed, "But it was still mean."

"That's what jealousy does to psycho teenage girls. T.K.'s hot and he loves you, which is everything they've dreamed about."

"Yeah, it's every girls dream to live more than five thousand miles away from the person she loves."

"Okay, you got me there," Yolei conceded. "How is that working out?"

Kari started crying then before she could even help it. "Yolei, I don't know what to do," she sobbed. "I love him but the distance is killing me. I'm so happy when I'm with him, but the thought that eventually we're going to have to say goodbye again just ruins everything."

Yolei didn't know what to tell her friend. She was fully aware that she couldn't offer the best advice when it came to relationships. Instead of attempting words of wisdom, she did the best she could and gave Kari a tight hug and a shoulder to cry on.

Despite Yolei's comforting, Kari woke up the next morning in a state of depression. She hadn't been able to sleep for very long, every minute that went by brought her closer to her plane ride back to California.

Every way she looked at their situation, she couldn't arrive at a satisfying conclusion. There was no way that she could stay in Japan, especially now that Tara would be her stepmother, and there was no possibility that T.K. would move to America. She was left in the exact same spot she had been in since the day she left. Tomorrow she would leave Tokyo without knowing when she would see him again.

Her unpleasant thoughts were with her all day. She walked home in her state of dread, helped Tara with her hair, and prepared herself for the celebration with such a solemn attitude that even the ever-perky Tara began to avoid her.

The ceremony was short and simple, once Tara had stopped obsessing over the flower arrangements. Kari took a seat in the front row and watched while her father smiled at Tara and vowed to be faithful. If Kari hadn't already been dangling over the edge, the hypocrisy of the situation would have been enough to send her there.

After the wedding ceremony there was a huge celebration at a local hall. Kari took her time entering, letting Tai escort her to her designated table. She sat down, pasting a fake smile on her face as she greeted the ancient relatives sitting beside her.

She was so down that she couldn't even laugh at Tai's minor explosion when he realized that Matt and T.K. weren't seated at their table. It took Tai about ten minutes to explain to their deaf Great-aunt Aiko that she would be much more comfortable at another table.

T.K. sat down beside her, laughing hysterically as Tai practically carried the still confused Aunt Aiko across the room. When he noticed that Kari didn't find the situation as humorous he touched her shoulder.

She looked up at him trying not to cry when he asked her if she wanted to dance. She nodded and took his hand as he helped her up and led her to a deserted corner of the dance floor.

The song was beautiful and slow but Kari didn't hear it. T.K.'s arms wrapped around her protectively and she leaned into his chest.

"Kari, I think we need to talk," he stated bluntly as he stepped away from her, clutching her hands in his as she nodded to him.

The song ended and no one noticed as they cut between the tables to the glass door at the back of the room. A faster song started just as they stepped out onto the balcony, shutting the door to the party behind them. It was completely dark outside except for a strand of twinkle lights strung above the door. They made their way across the patio where they sat down on a stone bench.

"So you're leaving tomorrow," he said solemnly.

She nodded, but when she saw that he was about to say more, she cut him off with a deep kiss. She climbed into his lap and his hands groped her underneath the skirt of her dress.

"Wait," Kari stopped him. "Not here."

"Okay," he told her, already pulling her to her feet and across the balcony. They found an old wooden staircase that led down to a perfectly trimmed lawn.

In the shadow of the building she kissed him again, pulling them both down onto the grass while unbuckling his belt. He slid his hands along her thighs, pulling her skirt up to her waist.

He thought for a moment that they were moving too fast but lost all train of thought when Kari pulled his pants down to his knees. Everything was fast after that but neither of them minded. He ripped her silky underwear in his hurry to remove them, but she carelessly flung them aside anyways.

They made love there on the grass, in plain sight of anyone who happened to meander down the stairs. It was very different from their first time, and not just because of the location. This second time was fast and rough, more of a carnal need than an expression of love.

Above them, several of the guests had followed T.K. and Kari's example and sought refuge from the festivities on the balcony. No one on the patio heard or even suspected what was taking place below them, at least, until Kari moaned a little too loudly.

T.K. and Kari's coupling didn't last long and when they were through, they collapsed onto the grass, catching their breath. It was just at that moment that they heard a noise on the stairs.

"Oh shit," T.K. murmured, pulling his pants back up.

"Who's down there?" a voice called, and Kari's eyes widened as she recognized it as her brother's.

She looked around frantically for her underwear but couldn't find them in the darkness.

"Come on," T.K. said as he gripped her arm, forcing her to give up her search.

Running as fast as they could manage, they escaped Tai's wrath just inside the cover of a small cluster of trees. Once safely concealed, they froze, not daring to budge as Tai reached the bottom step.

They watched in silence as he looked around not seeing them anywhere. They struggled to hold back their laughter, however, when Tai reached down and picked up Kari's torn underwear off the ground. He stared at them for a second is his state of extreme confusion, and then threw them back where he had found them.

As soon as he headed back up the stairs, T.K. and Kari released their laughter at the hilarity of the situation.

"Do you think he knew they were yours?" T.K. asked, nervous about what Tai might do to him if he knew what they had done.

"No way," she assured him.

A moment passed in silence before Kari said seriously, "T.K., this isn't working."

"Did I do something wrong?" he asked, their sexual activity still on his mind.

"No, not that," she scolded him. "I meant the long-distance thing; it's not working."

When he didn't respond she went on, "It's killing me T.K. How can I leave tomorrow not knowing when I'll see you next?"

"So, what are you saying?" he asked, already suspecting what she was about to say.

She took a deep breath. "I think that…maybe we should just…I don't know, cool it for a little while, maybe go back to just being friends…"

T.K. could not believe what he was hearing. "Kari, I love you, and I can't just pretend that I don't."

Her eyes were watering now. "I know T.K. I love you too. But can't you see? It's just not enough."

T.K. was growing angry at her logic. "So we're just supposed to forget everything that's happened between us? Hell, just forget what we did not even ten minutes ago? Wait a minute…" he paused. "Did you plan this? Did you know that you were going to break up with me tonight before we had sex?"

She didn't say anything. He was right, she had known. She had decided that night when she couldn't sleep, debating every possible situation in her mind.

T.K. understood her silence. "God, I feel like such an idiot. You used me. I'm just you're whore in Japan."

"T.K., what are you talking about? We used each other!"

He gave her a look that made her want to crawl inside a hole and spend the rest of her life in hiding.

"If that's what you think," he said slowly, the anger in his voice replaced with disgust, and maybe even shame, "then we should say goodbye now. There's no point in us being friends anymore since you obviously don't know me very well."

She was in tears now, but he was too angry, too heartbroken to care. "Goodbye Kari, have a nice flight."

He walked away, ignoring her sobs as she dropped to her knees, her head in her hands.


	17. Consequences

Never Far 

**Chapter 17- Consequences**

The new Mr. and Mrs. Kamiya left after the party for a cruise to New Zealand, so Kari stayed at their apartment alone.

She couldn't sleep, she couldn't eat, all she could manage was crying. She had known that this weekend would be painful, but she hadn't expected T.K. to react so cruelly.

She cried for so long that it made her sick. In the morning she couldn't remember how she had fallen asleep on the bathroom floor, still in her dress, with the previous night's makeup streaked down her cheeks.

Taking a shower helped her to feel a little better, but not much. She had finally reached the point, however, where she had no more tears left to cry, which may or may not be progress. Having passed through the uncontrollable weeping phase, now she just felt numb inside.

When Tai arrived to drive her to the airport, her face was blank and expressionless. He didn't ask her what was wrong until the silence of the drive became unbearable.

"So what exactly happened last night between you and T.K.?" he asked cautiously.

"We broke up," Kari stated calmly. She breathed deeply, making sure that she wasn't going to cry again.

He gave her a look that told her he wanted her to continue.

"I don't want to talk about it," she told him, concentrating on breathing steadily.

Tai turned his attention back to the road. "T.K. wouldn't talk about it either. I don't know when he left the party, but he came back to our place around midnight. I've never seen the kid so depressed."

That was not what Kari wanted to hear just then. "So what the hell do you want me to do about it? T.K. and I are done, Tai, and I don't want to talk about it!"

He nodded and shut up, finally getting the hint. "Well, Daivs'll be excited," he added.

"That's not funny, Tai."

"Yeah it is. Smile, Kari. I just can't understand how this happened. You and T.K. were meant to be together."

She interrupted him, "Tai, I said I don't want to talk about it."

"Fine, we're here anyways," he declared as he pulled into a parking spot.

He carried her suitcase into the terminal for her and waited while she checked in her luggage and got her ticket. The guards wouldn't let him through security so they said their goodbyes then and there.

"Tell Mom and Grandma Kate hi for me."

"Okay. And thanks for _not_ talking about it," she commented sarcastically.

"Anytime, Kari. That's what brothers are for."

She laughed, rolled her eyes and hugged him anyways. "I love you Tai. I'm gonna miss you."

And to her enormous surprise, he started crying right there in the airport terminal, in front of the huge security guard named Paco. Sobbing hysterically he threw his arms around you. "Kari, everything's so weird now. Dad's married, you and T.K. aren't together, and you're going back to live in America!"

She rubbed his back telling him that it would be all right. "We'll see each other soon, Tai, I promise. Tell Matt I said good bye." She headed towards security, then she turned around and waved at her still balling brother. "E-mail me," she shouted back before joining the long line of people to go through the metal detectors.

The flight was long and boring, to say the least. This was her third time flying across and it seemed that each flight was worse than the last. The little monitor that counted down the minutes certainly didn't help the time go by any faster.

When the plane touched down at the San Francisco International Airport, Kari felt like worshipping the ground. She went through the now extremely familiar routine of baggage collection, customs, countless metal detectors, and body searches before spotting her Grandma Kate at the exit.

The next few weeks were a blur to Kari. School started the Monday after she returned, which gave her some distraction from her misery. When she was studying, her mind cleared of everything else and she could finally escape T.K.'s image.

The weekends, however, were torture. Mr. Thompson hired her as Mikey's fulltime babysitter, which offered some distraction on Friday and Saturday nights when he took her mom out. Yes, her mother was now dating her history teacher. At first it was a little awkward, but after that wore away, Kari was happy for both of them.

Lynn and Hannah bothered her for weeks, trying to learn all of the details about what had happened in Japan. Kari had yet to tell them everything, since she had decided to keep most of that week to herself.

Between schoolwork, following Lynn and Hannah around town, and babysitting Mikey, Kari had tried keeping as busy as she could, but when she was alone, things were different.

In those dark moments before Kari could fall asleep, T.K. was all she ever thought about. His eyes haunted her everywhere. His smile was imprinted on the backs of her eyelids. No matter how hard she tried to forget, she could still feel his lips against her skin, his hands on her thighs. Sometimes she awoke in the middle of the night remembering only that, forgetting that he hated her now. Sometimes she woke up convinced that he had never walked away, that she hadn't said the terrible things she had.

Perhaps that was why the first thing she did when she got home from school was check the mail for a letter from him. The first thing she ever did when sitting down to a computer was check her e-mail, praying for some sort of connection from him.

Between her times of forgetting and her times of heartbreak, the year flew by pretty quickly. Tai came to California during his winter break from school and gave her all the updates from Japan, carefully excluding any mention of T.K.

Kari had gently informed her mother about Tai's relationship with Matt, and probably because she had been living in San Francisco for over a year, her son's homosexuality wasn't much of a surprise.

One night while Tai was in town, Grandma Kate and their mother had already gone to bed, and Kari and Tai were on the couch watching a late night movie.

Kari was sprawled across the couch, drifting off to sleep when her brother asked her, "Have you talked to T.K. recently?"

"You're kidding, right?"

"I think you should write him."

"Tai, we already had this conversation. T.K. and I are not a couple anymore. It's over."

"Look, Kari, I don't know everything that happened, but I can tell you that he still loves you. He might have been mad at first…"

"Stop, Tai," she interrupted him.

He ignored her. "I bet if you apologized…"

"Tai! Just stop! I'm over him," she lied. "I've moved on, and you should too."

She felt the tears coming and decided that it was a wonderful time to say goodnight. Tai left a few days after that, and Kari gave up hope of ever getting a letter or e-mail from T.K. There was no doubt that Tai would have told him was she had said.

Time flew by after that and spring arrived despite Kari's persistent state of darkness. Since it was her twelfth year of school, letters of acceptance started arriving from all of the universities to which she had applied.

None of her friends were surprised at the scholarship offers she received, Kari had always been a brilliant student, especially after her breakup with T.K. Because she had thrown herself so vigorously into her schoolwork to forget their relationship, she had scored amazingly on the American standardized tests.

She narrowed her decision down to two schools. The first was Stanford University, an Ivy League school just thirty miles south of San Francisco in Silicon Valley and also where Hannah and Tom were both going next year. She would be in driving distance of her grandmother's house and close to Lynn, who was going to the University of California: Berkeley with a soccer scholarship.

Her second choice: the University of Tokyo.

Obviously, the decision was going to be tough.

Another important even that arrived with spring was the senior prom. A dumb dance that all of her friends had been talking about since November. Kari learned about all of the details whenever she talked to her friends. Not only was there dresses, shoes, hairstyles, and manicures to worry about, but also matching the color of the dress with his tuxedo, renting a limo and a billion other things that Kari would never have cared about.

Kari gave up trying to follow the conversations. The worst part, however, was when Lynn found out that Kari wasn't going.

"Kari! It's the prom! You have to go!" she shouted across the lunch table in the middle of the cafeteria. Heads turned to stare. Apparently it was a crime to not go to prom.

"Lynn, I don't have a date. I wouldn't want to be a fifth wheel between you, Drew, Hannah, and Tom."

"Kari don't be ridiculous! Any guy in the school would jump at the chance to take you to prom."

And, sadly, it was true. Last fall the word had spread pretty quickly that she had broken up with her Japanese rock star boyfriend. T.K.'s fan club finally stopped sending her hate mail and there was always a group of teenage boys hanging around the sidewalk in front of her house.

At that very moment, at least ten boys had heard their conversation and were shouting over the lunchroom noise, "I'll be your date, Kari!" or "Kari, let me take you to prom!"

Later that day one boy even told her he would pay her to go to prom with him. Lynn, of course, laughed hysterically when she found out.

"See Kari, not only would you have a blast at the prom, but you could make some money too!"

"Lynn, keep your twisted humor out of this. I'm not going. I already told Mr. Thompson I'd babysit Friday night anyway."

Lynn didn't give up there, though. Friday night she made their limo stop at the Thompson's house, where Kari was already on the job. Mr. Thompson, ironically, was chaperoning the prom and taking her mother with him as his date.

Kari let Lynn and Hannah inside so Mikey could see them in their formal dresses, but it was far too late for them to convince Kari to join them, so they left reluctantly for their fun night.

Meanwhile, Kari watched a movie with the now almost twelve-year-old Mikey. He was probably responsible enough to be home alone, but she suspected that Mr. Thompson wanted an excuse to keep her coming around, since things were getting pretty serious between him and her mother.

After the movie ended, she had him brush his teeth, change into pajamas, and was just about to say goodnight, when he called her from inside his room.

"What's up?" she asked, poking her head in.

"How come you didn't go to the dance?" he asked innocently.

"Well, it's complicated."

"How come T.K. didn't come to go with you?"

"Well, Mikey," she stammered, trying to phrase her situation. "T.K. and I got into a fight the last time I saw him and he doesn't want to be my friend anymore."

"That's stupid. Did you apologize?"

"Don't worry about it Mikey, I'm sure we'll work it out eventually."

"Kari?"

"Yeah, Mikey?"

"I would have been your date for the prom."

She laughed. "Maybe when you're older."

She shut the door and wandered downstairs to help herself to a carton of rocky road ice cream.


	18. Invitation

Never Far 

**Chapter 18- Invitation**

In early June, Kari, Lynn, Hannah, and Tom all graduated from high school. Most of the graduates were excited to leave school and move on with the rest of their lives, but the girls were still bursting into tears every time someone said "Congratulations." Kari thought the ceremony was long and boring, especially since she had graduated at the top of her class and had to sit on the stage in an uncomfortable plastic chair smiling and trying to look excited.

After she received her diploma she returned to her seat, but was required to sit and watch as each graduate walked across the stage in front of her. She watched the nameless faces, some she recognized, but most were unfamiliar. Though she tried not to think about Takeru, she couldn't help but wonder if he had graduated yet. He would have posed for pictures with Davis, Yolei, and Ken. Of course Cody would have been there too, and Matt and Tai, and Sora and Izzy and the rest of the group. Everyone but her.

T.K. had probably forgotten about her. It was probably better that he forget her though, since remembering would only make him hate her.

As the last student returned to their seat and the school principal gave the concluding speech, Kari forced herself to clear her head. She wouldn't think about the happenings in Japan. They were no longer of any concern to her.

She was repeating this over and over in her mind as she posed for pictures, shook hands, and fled the building with Lynn, Hannah, and Tom. Most of the kids in their class were having a party at a beach a few miles south of the city. Kari didn't really want to go, but Lynn decided that it would be good for her.

Of course, as soon as they arrived at the already thriving party, Lynn disappeared somewhere with Drew, who were dating again, which was no surprise to anyone. Kari sat down at the bonfire beside Hannah and Tom, who were being antisocial and whispering and giggling at each other in a disgustingly romantic way.

So, when Tyler, the super gorgeous quarterback of the football team (which was the dumbest sport Kari had ever heard of) handed her a can of beer, she accepted enthusiastically.

Although Kari had never been much of a drinker, she drained the can in a matter of minutes and was slightly buzzed when Tyler asked her to take a walk with him.

They were walking along the dark beach when Tyler asked her what her plans were for next year.

Kari rolled her eyes. "Well, I did want to go back to Japan, but he doesn't want me to."

Tyler laughed at her, and she realized that he was tipsy too. "Who's he? Your sleazy ex-boyfriend?"

"He's not sleazy!" Kari responded, instinctively defending T.K. "He's just an idiot and he hates me." She plopped down onto the sand, dropping her empty beer can in the process.

Tyler sat down next to her. "You deserve better than an idiot," Tyler told her. Then without any warning, he pressed his lips to hers.

Kari didn't know how to react. T.K. was the only boy she'd ever kissed before now, but Tyler's kiss was nowhere near as effective as T.K.'s. Compared to T.K., Tyler was a terrible kisser. He tasted like beer and cigarettes, and she had to push him away before his tongue made her gag.

Kari stood up wobbly. "I'm going back to the party," she told him and began walking back towards the bonfire.

Tyler leapt to his feet, grabbing her arm as she walked away. "Kari, wait! I'm serious! I love you!"

She laughed at his drunken proclamations as she found a ride home from one of her friends, since Lynn, Hannah, and Tom had all disappeared.

Luckily, her mother and grandmother didn't ask any questions when Kari slept until one in the afternoon and woke up with the worst headache of her life. She only got out of bed when her mother yelled up the stairs that she had a phone call.

Still in her pajamas and bathrobe, she stumbled down the stairs to find a cordless phone.

"Hello?" she asked groggily after she found one.

"Kari? It's Hannah, did you get a message on your D-3 this morning?" she asked in an extremely loud voice.

"Hannah, what are you talking about?"

"Check your D-3!"

"Why the hell are you calling so damn early?"

"Well, sleeping beauty, not all of us got wasted last night and some of us woke up perfectly healthy and realized that we have messages on our D-3s!"

Kari found her D-3 under a pile of dirty clothes and realized that she did in fact have a message.

"Hannah, why did you bother calling if you knew I would have a message?"

"Did you read it?" she asked, in her all-knowing, snobby voice that Kari hated.

Kari flipped open the screen and read her new message.

_To: Digi-destineds_

_From:Gennai_

_Re: Reunion_

_Since the digital world has been in such a wonderful state of blissful peace, I have finally completed one of the projects that I have been working on for centuries: The Digi-Destined's Mansion. It's a lovely home that I hope all of you will find useful during your vacations here and you are all welcome to stay here any time you wish. This weekend, however, I was hoping that all of you could stay for a nice reunion. No need to R.S.V.P., I've sent a map as well. See you soon!_

_-Gennai_

"I don't want to go," Kari responded automatically, immediately thinking that T.K. would most certainly be there.

"This is why I called you. Kari, you have to go, we'll force you if we have to."

"But why? It's not that important. It's not like we're saving the digi-world or anything."

"You have to go Kari, because it would be _so _awkward for us if you don't. We've only met a few of the Japanese digi-destineds, so you have to come and introduce us to the rest of your friends."

Kari sighed. "When are we leaving?"

"Tonight. Pack your things, Lynn'll pick you up around eight. We're going to use Tom's computer. Mikey wants to come too, so you might have to convince Mr. Thompson and your mom to let him come."

"Don't ever call here again," Kari threatened as she wandered into the kitchen to pour herself a cup of coffee.

Hannah laughed. "See you later," and she hung up before Kari could make another sarcastic comment about her energy.

As much as Kari dreaded their return to the digital world, Mikey and Mr. Thompson arrived at seven thirty. Surprisingly, Mr. Thompson was perfectly okay with Mikey spending the weekend in the digital world.

And unfortunately, Lynn was early. Kari threw her stuff into the backseat and stared blankly out the passenger window as they drove to Tom's house. Kari practiced deep breathing; she wasn't going to overreact. This was no big deal, she was just going to see her old friends. So what if T.K. hated her? Gennai had said that they were going to the Digi-Destined's _Mansion_. Maybe it was such a big place that she would never see T.K.?

But was that a good thing or a bad thing?

She sighed in frustration and self-pity. She would try to make the best of the situation. There was no point in ruining the fun for her friends.

"Hurry up guys!" Hannah urged as she pushed them inside and marched them into Tom's bedroom. "I want to get there before dark."

"What's the big rush Hannah?" Lynn asked. "I bet everyone else is coming tomorrow."

"Actually," Tom interrupted, "with the time difference and the fact that Gennai sent that message to us three days ago, my bet is that everyone arrived yesterday."

"So, we're late?" Mikey asked.

"Yes!" Hannah cried out. "Which is why we should hurry. I've never been to this part of the digital world before, and it's going to be dark soon, and there's nothing worse than being lost in the dark."

"I guess you're right," Kari agreed, "let's get going."

Hannah looked at her questioningly, surprised at her eagerness, but didn't oppose as Kari raised her D-3 to the computer screen, squeezed her eyes shut, and called out, "Digi-Port Open."

Just seconds later the small group emerged into the serene digital world where an equally small group of very familiar digimon were waiting to greet them.

Each of the humans rushed to meet their partners.

"Gennai told us to wait for you," Gatomon told Kari.

"Yeah, he thought you guys might get lost," Mikey's Labramon added.

"I guess there's no chance of that since you're here," Hannah said, "or is there? Are you guys sure you know where you're going?"

"Of course we know where we're going," Lynn's partner Gazimon informed them.

"And Patamon said he'd come look for us if we're not back by nightfall," Betamon told him.

Kari snorted. "That's not very reassuring. Patamon's about as good with directions as T.K. is."

Gatomon understood and laughed with her. Even though it turned out that the digimon did know where they were going, it took the party quite a long time to get from their landing spot to the mansion. They arrived long after the sun had set, but that did not hinder Kari's first sight of the mansion.

Kari had been picturing a mansion, but the building sitting on top of the hill in front of them looked like a small castle. It was five stories with balconies, long porches, and turrets. The walkway leading up to the main door was lined with bright flowerbeds and even crossed over a moat.

"This was actually an ancient fortress once, before the dark masters," Betamon informed them as they passed restored gardens and magnificent fountains.

They reached the gigantic front door but jumped in surprise as it was thrown open from the inside.

Before Kari's mind could even register what had happened, a shrieking mass of pink hair latched onto her, squeezing the life out of her.

"Kari! I haven't seen you in forever! I missed you so much!" Kari recognized the high-pitched voice instinctively.

"I missed you too, Mimi," she said as she unwound herself from her old friend.

"How come no one ever told me you moved to California? You've only been like a plane ride away for all these years!"

"Mimi, I would like you to meet the California digi-destineds, Lynn, Hannah, Tom, and Mikey," she said, changing the subject.

"Oh geez, I've forgotten my manners. You guys must be exhausted, why don't you come in?"

She pushed the door open wider and led them into wide corridor featuring countless doors to the left and right and a grand marble staircase.

"When did you get here Mimi?" Hannah asked.

"I arrived this morning, and the rest of the gang got here early this afternoon. They wanted to wait up for you guys, but they were pretty tired too."

They began walking towards the staircase. "I still have no idea where most of these doors lead, but I know that the one over there on the left is the kitchen, and the one to the right of it is the main dining room."

Mikey wanted to stop for a late night snack, but Lynn pulled him away. "If you get separated right now, you might get lost," she warned him.

"That big white door on the right is a sort of lounge or game room. That's where we were hanging out earlier. Of course, there's a pool and a hot tub around back."

Kari knew Mikey must have been tired by his little show of excitement.

They climbed the staircase and reached another wide hallway, except this floor had only five doors. Straight ahead of them, towards the back of the house, there was a door leading out to a balcony. Mimi led them out there where they could overlook the pool area and the mansion's back yard.

When they returned inside the graphics on the other doors caught her eye.

"These four rooms are bedrooms," Mimi informed them, "so let's be quiet because they might be sleeping."

Kari took a closer look at the door on her right. There was a blue symbol on it that she recognized as the crest of friendship. "Is this Matt's room?" Kari asked.

"Yep, and next to his is Tai's."

Kari walked to Tai's door and noticed Tai's crest of courage: the orange eight pointed sun with the circle inside of it.

"The two rooms are connected with a bathroom between them, so I wouldn't encourage anyone to go near these two rooms while Tai and Matt are inside."

Kari and Mimi shared an understanding glance, while Lynn struggled to hide her smile, and Hannah pretended she didn't hear Mimi.

"Who else is on this floor?" Mikey asked groggily.

"Oh," Mimi recalled, "Izzy and Sora are on the other side."

They climbed the stairs to the third floor. "My room's on this floor, it's this one here on the left. And guess what, Kari! You're room is the second one on the right."

Sure enough, Kari sighted the pink symbol of light on that door.

"I wanted to trade rooms with you because yours is pink, but they wouldn't let me," Mimi said.

"Who wouldn't let you?" Kari asked, walking towards her room.

Mimi blushed, "Oh…uh…no one…"

Kari turned to give Mimi a questioning glance when the symbol on the door to the room next to hers caught her eye.

Her breath caught in her throat. There was no way. This was not going to work out for her at all. The crest was the golden symbol of hope. T.K.'s crest.

"Mimi! You knew about this! How could you let them put my room next to his?"

"Kari," Mimi whispered, urging her to keep her voice down. "Gennai's been planning this for years. He thought you two were best friends. Just calm down, just because your rooms are connected doesn't mean you have to talk to him."

"Connected?" Kari asked. "You mean I have to share a bathroom with him too?"

"Well, if it's really that big of a deal, you can come across the hall and use mine and Joe's bathroom."

Kari felt like screaming on the quiet floor as the rest of her group climbed the next set of stairs to find their rooms. Taking a deep breath she pushed open her respected door and was met with a shock of pink.

There was pink everywhere: the carpet, the walls, the furniture. It was almost sickening, but the bed was a huge four-poster with a frilly canopy and lacy drapes. Somehow, it kind of reminded Kari of the princess room she had dreamed about as a little girl.

She moved to the far side of the room where there was a glass door leading out to a balcony. Her excitement dropped though when she realized that the porch extended to the room beside hers.

She sighed and reentered her new bedroom. It wasn't that bad, she decided as she set her stuff down on the floor beside her bed. She pulled off her dirty clothes and was about to find her pajamas and climb into bed when a sound from behind her made her freeze.

Kari turned around slowly, pulling on her pajama top to cover herself. On the other side of the room there was a small futon with big pink fluffy pillows, but the most noticeable fact about it was the blond boy sitting on it.

At first she thought T.K. was staring at her, then as she moved closer, she realized that he was fast asleep.

She didn't know why he was in her room. Maybe he had been waiting for her, or maybe he just went to the wrong room. She didn't know, and she certainly wasn't going to ask him.

Although reluctantly, she pulled a blanket off her bed and draped it over him before climbing into her magnificent bed. It wasn't long before she too drifted off to sleep.


	19. Reunion

Never Far

Chapter 19- Reunion 

Kari was shocked once more in the morning when she opened her eyes to the pink everything that surrounded her. Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, she pulled back the thick blankets and stumbled out of the gigantic bed.

Groggily, she headed toward the bathroom. She walked past the big fluffy futon, noticing the blanket folded on the cushion, but the sight did not inspire any memory of the night before. At least, she didn't remember until she opened the bathroom door.

Although the steam in the bathroom had fogged over the mirror and shower doors, the room was clear enough for the Kari to see _everything_. She had somehow managed to open the door at the exact time T.K. was stepping out of the shower.

She froze in the doorway, letting the warm air flood out into her bedroom. For a moment, she didn't know what to do. This was definitely not the first time she had seen him naked but she still felt herself blushing.

She took in the sight of him quickly, resisting the urge to let her gaze linger over his beautiful body. Physically, he had not changed much in the past year. His muscles were slightly larger, more noticeable, as if he had been working out. He was taller than she remembered, his chest and shoulders somewhat broader. Otherwise, he was still the same boy she had known her whole life, at least, that's what she told herself.

He grabbed a towel and began to dry himself off, not even acknowledging her except to say, "Do you mind shutting the door? You're letting the heat out."

With an exasperated huff, Kari slammed the door behind her and headed over to the sink. If he could ignore her, then she could ignore him. He looked up at her as she grabbed her toothbrush, and continued to stare while he wrapped the towel around his waist.

She purposely took her time brushing her teeth, knowing that her interruption of his privacy was most likely frustrating him. If it did frustrate him, however, he didn't say as much. In fact, he seemed almost amused at her tactics.

He smiled at her, "How was the trip?" he asked, trying to break the extremely awkward silence.

She only glared at her own reflection, refusing to meet his gaze. Instead of answering him, however, she finished her business and stalked out of the bathroom, making sure to slam the door behind her.

He followed her then, barging straight into her room while she began to unpack her clothes.

"Is this how it's going to be then?" he asked, not bothering to hide his irritation.

Still ignoring him, she pulled her suitcase onto the bed and began unpacking her clothes.

When she still hadn't answered him, however, he stormed over to the bed and jerked the lid of her suitcase shut.

With no other choice, she turned to stare at him, wanting so much to let all the anger she had built up explode. Instead, all she could do was look away.

He had expected her to be angry, he had almost wanted her to hate him, but when she refused to meet his eyes, he knew it was because she was close to tears and knowing that he could her cry, and had done so, had haunted him for the past year.

"Kari, are you okay?" he asked cautiously. There are distinct lines between enemies, friends, and lovers, and he had no clue as to where they stood.

She turned her back to him, fidgeting with the strap of a lacy tank top she had placed on the bed beside her suitcase. "Please go," she whispered. "I don't want this."

The tears were brimming in her eyes and he couldn't bear it. "I'm sorry…" he attempted to say. There was so much that he wanted to say to her, all of his regrets, all of the emotions he still felt for her, even after such a messy breakup.

He moved closer to her, and she squeezed her eyes shut against her tears and his tempting naked figure. He was so close to her that she could feel the heat from his shower and smell that alluring scent of soap and masculinity.

He had stepped towards her instinctively, his body reaching out to embrace her before his head had even caught on. She stepped away from him immediately, though she knew from his body language that he had meant to hold her. Part of her wanted to let him, the part that wanted to believe that because he was here in her room, naked and gorgeous, that nothing had changed.

She knew better though. Everything was complicated now. There was no way that they could just hug and everything would be exactly the way it had been before.

He paused as she stepped away, as if coming back to the reality. She wrapped her arms around herself, and asked him once more to go.

He nodded, finally understanding and left through the bathroom door. Kari knew it was stupid to cry over a boy, especially when the issue was mostly her fault, but after the door clicked shut, she climbed into the bed beside her suitcase and let herself cry.

After the much needed release, Kari willed herself out of bed and returned to her unpacking. She changed into a pair of comfy jeans and a lacy pink tank top and headed into the bathroom to fix her hair and makeup. This time she opened the door cautiously, but, thankfully, there were no naked men present this time around.

The bathroom was spotlessly clean, and if it weren't for the plastic green toothbrush beside the sink, she never would've guessed he had been there at all. She arranged her beauty products around the bathroom and just when she had finished pampering herself, her bedroom door opened and Tai bounded in.

"Kari!" he screamed as he threw his arms around her. "You have to come downstairs. T.K. said you were still sleeping, so I decided to come wake you up. Everyone is going to be so excited to see you. We've already introduced the others to Lynn, Hannah, Tom, and Mikey."

He was talking at a rate of about a million words per minute, but she smiled politely and tried to absorb all he was telling her.

"I figured you must've told Lynn about me and Matt and that's cool. It's a good thing for all of us that she's not all flirty around him anymore. When I came up here they were swapping hair tips." He rolled his eyes, apparently Tai wasn't the stereotypical feminine gay boy, but that didn't surprise Kari.

"Mikey keeps following T.K. around. It's pretty cute. They look alike and the kid pretty much worships him. But oh well, I'm sure T.K. doesn't mind, and I guess that's one way to keep both of them out of trouble." He winked at her, but talking about T.K. already had Kari heading for the door. The last thing she wanted to do was talk about her relationships with her protective older brother. Not that it mattered though. Their last conversation was proof enough that Tai would talk about whatever he wanted to, despite what anyone else wanted.

Knowing that Tai was going to ask her about her encounter with T.K., she opened her door and headed down the two flights of stairs to the main level. She followed the noise and her nose to the dining room where almost the whole gang of digi-destineds sat eating stacks of pancakes and French toast.

She had hoped that no one would notice her late arrival, but when she entered the room there was pandemonium as all of her old friends jumped out of their seats to greet her. Davis practically knocked her over, but by now she was used to his hellos.

When things finally got settled down, Kari took a seat beside Sora, who immediately threw stacks of pancakes onto Kari's plate.

"Thanks, mom," Kari said sarcastically and Sora just smiled, not even trying to deny the maternal instincts she had developed towards the younger kids.

It was nice for Kari to see how not much had changed since she'd been gone. Tai and Matt, were of course exactly the same as she remembered, and disappeared as soon as Tai was done scarfing down his third stack of pancakes. Ken asked where they two boys had gone, but Sora shook her head and told him he didn't want to know. Ken blushed and soon regretted asking.

Sora was now running her mother's flower shop, and coaching a young girl's soccer league. She was currently engaged to a man Kari hoped to one day meet, and planning to soon have kids of her own.

Izzy was still the same computer genius, now making loads of money for his talents.

Mimi was still the same bright and buoyant girl she had known when she was younger. The only difference was that she was now dating Joe, who was the same studious worrywart.

Kari learned that Davis, Yolei, and Ken were all planning to attend the University of Tokyo, Davis and Ken with soccer scholarships, although Ken's included an all-expenses-paid, full ride thanks to his academic skills as well.

Cody was in high school now, and while she didn't get much of a change to talk to him over breakfast, he seemed as if he was the same quiet boy as always. She wasn't surprised at all, when he began discussing philosophy with Tom over their pancakes.

And then there was T.K. Now he was a mystery to her. Unconsciously, her gaze slid to his end of the table where he sat next to Mikey, who was chatting incessantly. He felt her gaze and their eyes met briefly. For once in her life, she couldn't read the message in his cornflower blue eyes, but she still felt that nervous fluttering knot in her stomach that only he could give her.

He was a mystery all right, but she truly hoped that it wouldn't be that way for long.


	20. Resolution

Never Far

Chapter 20- Resolution

Being surrounded by so many of her close friends was wonderful for Kari. She could think of nothing that could make her happier than spending a week in a house filled with people that she loved.

Early that afternoon she found herself sun bathing in a lounge chair beside the pool with Yolei, Sora, Mimi, Lynn, and Hannah. Before long, a vicious game of water volleyball erupted, bringing back memories from a trip to the beach two summers previous.

The beach ball came dangerously close to Kari's chair and she lowered her wide sunglasses half an inch to glare at whoever had hit the ball her way. T.K. climbed out of the pool to retrieve it, giving her a cheeky smile as she glared at him. His wet body was gleaming in the sun and her glare quickly became a small smile as her thoughts turned into provocative memories. He stooped to pick up the ball, blushing as his eyes met hers, as if sensing the nature of her thoughts.

"Oh T.K.!" Mimi called out, "will you fetch me the tanning lotion from the table over there?"

Being the nice guy he was, he quickly brought Mimi the desired object and even assisted her in making sure that her back was completely covered. She giggled as his hands rubbed the lotion into her skin.

Kari replaced her sunglasses but this time directed her glare in Mimi's direction, suppressing an unfamiliar urge to rip Mimi's head from her body.

"Thank you sooo much, T.K. Make sure you don't miss any spots," Mimi said flirtatiously.

"Always glad to help," he replied with a cocky smile.

Kari rolled her eyes, though no one could see behind her shades. Then T.K. finished his task and leapt back into the pool where the game had not waited for him.

"My, I still can't believe how much T.K. has grown," Mimi said to Sora. "When he came to visit me in New York last summer with the Teenage Wolves he still seemed like a little boy. But I definitely would not consider him a boy anymore."

Lynn laughed from Kari's other side, catching Mimi's sexual hints.

"Sora will you help me untie my bikini top? I don't want to get tan lines."

Kari could not believe her friend was behaving like such a slut. Who really goes sunbathing topless? Kari tried her best to ignore Mimi and start a conversation with Lynn, but she could not overpower Mimi's high-pitched voice. After Mimi situated herself lying on her bare stomach, she continued her assessment of the adult T.K.

"I bet he's fabulous in bed," she contemplated with Sora and Yolei. "I wonder if he's had much experience."

"I don't think he's been with anyone lately, at least, as far as I know," Sora told her.

"Why don't you ask Kari? She would know," said Yolei. "Hey Kari, Mimi wants to know how good T.K. is in bed."

Refusing to take part in this conversation, Kari gathered her beach towel and flip-flops and climbed out of her lounge chair.

"I'm sure Mimi will find out soon enough," Kari said coldly as she headed down the path back towards the mansion.

Kari marched down the paved sidewalk and through the air conditioned house. When she got to her room, she couldn't help but slam the door shut behind her. She felt a little sunburnt as she entered her shared bathroom and climbed into the wide Jacuzzi tub. She filled the tub with fragrant bubbles and submerged herself to help relax, clear her head, and cool her temper.

She definitely agreed with Mimi that T.K. had changed in the last year. Physically, he was undoubtedly no longer a boy, and apparently, he had changed mentally as well. But if anybody had changed over the years, it was most certainly Mimi. For as long as she had known Mimi, the girl had always been a boy-crazy flirt, but now it seems she's turned into a sex-crazed nymphomaniac.

The longer she absorbed the hot water and relaxing aromas the further her frustrations seemed to drift. She was almost asleep when the door creaked open and T.K. stepped into the bathroom.

He didn't even notice her as he stripped out of his bathing suit and wrapped a towel around his waist.

"I think we need to create a system or something," Kari said, surprising him so much that he jumped several inches into the air.

He blushed deeply as she rose out of the bathtub, her meditation ruined.

"I think knocking would work fine," she told him, but he was looking at the floor to keep his eyes anywhere but on her naked body. "You took my towel."

"I'm sorry," he stammered, looking up into her eyes. "I'll get you another one, or here, have this one."

He took the towel from around his waist and draped it around her shoulders. She grabbed the ends and secured it around her body, but when she looked up at him, he hadn't moved away.

Before she even knew what was happening, he lowered his face to hers and kissed her on the lips. The kiss was soft and innocent and Kari was too surprised to respond, and unsure of whether or not she wanted to.

But he moved closer to her, deepening the kiss and destroying any form of thought. Unable to focus, Kari responded to his kiss instinctively, moving her mouth against his. Her heart was pounding as he sandwiched her between his naked body and the counter. Then her towel fell away, and their bodies collided, skin on skin.

"T.K. stop," she finally managed to say, pushing him away from her. "We can't do this." She gathered her towel and repositioned it tightly around herself.

"Why not?" he asked. "We're not kids anymore, Kari."

"But it's not right. Maybe it was before but that doesn't work for us now. We're not in love anymore."

She could tell he was hurt by the way his eyes seemed to glaze over as he stalked out of the bathroom.

She followed his example and headed into her room to get dressed, her words to him echoing in her head. _We're not in love anymore_. Was it true? Why had he kissed her? Why had she kissed him back? Why had if felt so good? The kiss had not been meaningless to her. When kissing him, she had felt emotions that were not incited by friendship or even a hollow attraction.

And then it hit her. She loved him. But had she fallen in love with him all over again? Was it the same love that had resurfaced? Or was it a completely new love with the new person he was? Maybe she had never really fallen out of love with him.

She was staring out the window wearing only a skirt and a bra when the bathroom door flew open and the very object of her contemplation barged into the room. The sun was setting outside her window, coloring the pink of her room with it's golden light and illuminating the boy that she could now admit to loving.

There were tears in her eyes as he slowly walked towards her. When their eyes met, she knew he had reached the same conclusion. When they were standing only inches apart he wiped away her tears with his index finger and cupped her face in his hands.

"T.K., I…" she started to say, but he shushed her and covered her lips with a finger.

"Kari, I'm sorry about everything that happened between us. I love you so much, and that hasn't changed. I've been denying it for a year now, and trying to forget about it, but I don't ever want to go there again. My life has been so empty without you. I know now that you are the most important thing in my life. I figured that out a few weeks ago, and I've been waiting for the perfect time to tell you of my acceptance to Stanford. Tai told me that's where you want to go, so I applied there and worked my ass off to get in." He laughed at the surprised look on her face.

"Kari, I promise I'm not making any of this up. I love you. I know now that I _can _live without you. If we leave here and never see each other again, I'm sure we'll both be just fine. But the thing is, I don't ever even want to try. I'd rather jump off this third floor balcony than go back to Japan without you in my life. I need you Kari."

Her tears were falling steadily now as she buried her head into his shoulder.

"Kari, are you okay? Why are you crying?"

She sniffled a little, and then looked up at him to tell him, "I love you too. And if you jumped off that balcony, I'd have to jump off after you."

He smiled and then kissed her. This kiss was much shorter than their last, however, because right when it began to heat up, Kari's bedroom door burst open and Matt and Tai exploded into the room.

The two older boys were definitely surprised to find their siblings in such a state. Kari rushed to pull on a tank top and the brothers backed out of the room, pulling the door half shut.

"Sorry if we're interrupting anything," they yelled from the other side of the door. "But dinner's about to be served." They walked away from the room but Kari and T.K. could hear their laughter from the hallway.

Kari rolled her eyes at her brother and headed toward the door when T.K. grabbed her arm and pulled her in for another quick kiss. "We'll finish this later," he whispered and she pulled him with her out of the room.

Dinner was a slightly awkward affair, what with T.K. struggling to eat, caress Kari's thigh beneath the table, and push Mimi away from him all at the same time. But Mimi soon learned where she stood with T.K. the next morning, when Tai and Matt walked into Kari's bedroom once more, this time finding their two younger siblings in bed together.

It didn't take long for the story to spread through the house, but the gossip, fortunately, didn't phase T.K. and Kari as they extended their stay at the Digi-destined's Mansion. They parted sweetly this time, knowing that their separation would be brief before they met again in Stanford, California.

The End


	21. Wedding

Never Far

Epilogue- Wedding 

It was a beautiful summer day in California. With the air conditioning cranked up, Kari couldn't even feel the heat from outside as she gathered her nerves and breathed deeply. A bouquet of flowers was thrust into her hand and suddenly, the mahogany doors opened in front of her.

Kari blinked at the sudden brightness of the inside of the church and tried not to notice the pews filled with people she loved staring at her. The music was playing in the background but she couldn't hear it as she began to walk down the aisle, arm in arm with her brother Tai.

One side of the church was packed full of her friends from school, friends from Japan, rows of distant relatives and friends of her mother and grandmother. She smiled at them as she walked by and gave a slight wave or nod to several. She didn't know many of the people sitting on the other side, but many of them had become familiar faces to her in the recent months.

It was a shame her father couldn't have made it, but his absence surprised no one. Apparently he had not known of Tara's shopping addictions and terrible credit until after their honeymoon. With all of their financial issues, there was simply no possibility of his flying to America.

As it always seems to happen with moments that should be treasured, time passed quickly and Tai's pull on her arm let her know that they had reached the alter. The friendly minister smiled at her, but then raised his chin to look beyond her and the music paused.

Kari stepped to the left of the alter and turned to watch the church entrance along with the rest of the congregation. Then, Kari's mother appeared in the doorway, clad in a beautiful white gown. The familiar wedding march began to play. Kari turned to glance at Mr. Thompson, who she now had permission to call Gary, or, but only if she was comfortable with it, "Dad." Kari felt a warm feeling in her stomach as she saw the glow on her new stepfather's cheeks. The way he looked at her mother as she came down the aisle let her know that both her mother and Mr. Thompson had finally found the happiness they deserved.

In the front row of the church sat Kari's grandmother, who nodded at Kari to let her know she was thinking the exact same thing. Beside Grandma Kate sat T.K. and Matt, who were practically family nowadays. As maid of honor, Kari was supposed to give her mother her undivided attention on this special day, but Kari's thoughts could not help but wander to the boy in the front row who she knew was staring only at her.

The ceremony was beautiful, and when the minister pronounced them husband and wife, Kari found that her eyes were filled with tears. Tai, on the other hand, elbowed Mikey, who was standing beside him, to show him that Kari was crying. Her brother and new stepbrother were laughing at her as they walked out of the church, and while the guests were throwing rice at the entrance, Kari took the opportunity to punch them both on the arm.

Soon afterwards, her mother and her husband climbed into the back of a long white limo and sped off to the reception hall. While Kari, Tai, Mikey, T.K., and Matt waited for the limo that would carry them off, T.K. slipped his arm around Kari's waist.

"You were so beautiful up there," he whispered into her ear.

Kari giggled. He was being cliché and cheesy, but she didn't care. "Well, you don't look to bad yourself today." He was adorable in his black tuxedo.

The limo arrived and the wedding party climbed inside. Matt was pouring them all glasses of champagne against Kari's protests, since Mikey was not yet old enough to drink.

"So when are you two going to get married?" Mikey asked Kari and T.K.

Silence fell over the car as Kari and T.K. exchanged nervous glances and Matt and Tai awaited an answer, clearly they too had been anticipating the answer to this question.

Kari laughed, "We're not old enough to be married," she joked.

Tai snorted, "Since when has that stopped you?" Kari and T.K. both blushed and Matt cuffed Tai on the back of the head.

"Like you have any room to talk," T.K. pointed out. "I was half expecting you two to elope this week, you know, since gay marriage is legal here in California."

Suddenly Matt and Tai seemed uninterested in this conversation and decided to explore the mini-fridge and snack bar.

"You guys don't ever want to be married?" Kari asked them.

"Well, it's not that," Matt tried to explain. He looked at Tai for some help but Tai was staring out the window. "Really, what difference would it make? We're 'domestic partners,' it doesn't matter if we get married or not."

"And besides, mom would kill us if we eloped," Tai pointed out. "And the last thing we want is a fancy wedding like this." Matt nodded in agreement. Tai laughed, "But can't you just picture Matt in a wedding dress?" They all laughed as Matt threw a candy bar at his head.

Kari smiled at their brothers. Those two would never change, and that was perfectly fine with her. They were happy, they made each other happy, and their happiness made her happy. She was just radiating happiness that night.

Everything in her life was falling into place. Tai and Matt were happy in Japan now that Matt had a full-time job in the music business and Tai had a full-time job managing their finances. Yolei and Ken were soon to be married, as well as Lynn and Drew. Sora was happily married in Japan with two little girls. To no one's surprise, Joe soon got over his infatuation with Mimi and continued his stressful life as a doctor. The last time Kari had seen Mimi was when she had flown to San Francisco for a photo shoot. At that time she had been single and as flirty as always. She had heard from Yolei that Cody had just received a full ride scholarship to the University of Tokyo and would begin there in the fall. Davis, who had once gone there on a soccer scholarship had soon decided that college was not right for him and followed his dream in opening a noodle cart.

Reports from the digital world told her that all was well, but that did not stop them from visiting their friends every so often and reminiscing on old times. In her opinion, Gatomon was becoming quite lazy without having to protect the world from evil digimon. But Kari didn't mind because, for once, all of the digimon were at peace.

In a year from now, she and T.K. would both graduate from Stanford University and she would finally have her degree in elementary education and he would receive his in journalism.

Yep, everyone she loved was happy and at ease. What more could she ask for?

The music stopped playing for the tossing of the bouquet. Of all the American wedding traditions, Kari thought this one was the most ridiculous. How would catching a bundle of flowers ensure she would be the next to be married?

Even though she protested, Tai and Matt pushed her onto the dance floor beside all of the other unmarried women. She tried to catch T.K.'s eye for help, but he was laughing, amused by her reluctance.

Sighing, she turned her head towards the table on which her mother was standing. She had barely turned her head when the bouquet came flying straight towards her. Kari raised her hands instinctively to shield her face and somehow happened to grip the stems as they hit her.

All of a sudden, the group of girls around her were squealing and hugging her. "Congratulations, Kari!" they shouted, even though she was not even engaged.

"It's just some stupid flowers," Kari grumbled and threw the bouquet onto the table where T.K. was sitting.

Instead of sitting down in her chair, she plopped down on T.K.'s lap and leaned her head against his shoulder.

She sighed, breathing in the scent of his cologne. "It's been a long day."

"But a good one," he added, looking over to the newly married couple sweeping across the dance floor.

"That'll be us one day," he whispered into her ear.

The thought made her smile so she turned and kissed him on the lips. "According to those flowers, that day is going to be sooner than you think," she joked.

"That's good," T.K. said, scooting her off his lap and onto the seat in front of him. "Because I've been getting tired of carrying this thing around."

Kari gave him a questioning look as he stood up and then lowered himself to the floor in front of her. He knelt on one knee and then reached inside his jacked to pull out a small black velvet box.

Although Kari had dreamt of this day, her heart began to race now that the moment was actually here. He opened the box to reveal an enormous glittering diamond.

"I've told you a million times and I'll tell you a billion times more: I love you Kari. I always have. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?"

It seemed as if everyone in the reception hall knew what was taking place and paused to witness Kari's response. As for Kari, there was no doubt in her mind whatsoever.

She jumped out of her chair and threw her arms around T.K. "Of course. Yes, yes, yes, absolutely, yes."

T.K. couldn't say anything in response because she was covering his mouth in kisses, but the rest of the wedding guests erupted into cheers and applause. T.K. managed to untangle himself in order to slide the ring onto her finger.

He watched as she ran to show her family and friends. Tai and Matt were pouring glasses of champagne and shoving them into his hand, but he didn't notice. All he could see was her face and how happy she would be, how just seeing her happy made him happy, how happy they would be together. She was everything he ever wanted. A perfect ending and a perfect beginning.


End file.
